Women are everywhere, doing all manner of tasks in all manner of ways. In this witty yet intensely moving collection, Cathy Bryant gives us sight of, and insight into, their many and varied lives.
The book is presented in three sections: The Lovers, The Mothers, and The Eclectic Others. All through the collection, Bryant makes clever and expert use of various standard poetry forms, but also allows herself the luxury of free verse, whilst paying gentle homage to (among others) William Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Carlos Williams.
The poems in this collection are all so good that it seems churlish to single out any individual ones. But I was particularly struck by the neat and pithy triolet Dinner Invitation, in which a first date goes spectacularly and horribly wrong, and the deliciously wicked Sexual Positions for Those No Longer Young (a poem which proves to be every bit as intriguing as its title). Caleb Hollow’s Room holds up a mirror to the heartless injustices of the so-called “Bedroom Tax”, whilst the darkly disturbing Rape Rack shows us that animals are mothers too, and can suffer just as much as their human counterparts. Dinner Ladies is a paean of belated praise to those unsung and all-too-often unappreciated heroines of the school dining room, and The White Rose (a tribute to the Resistance heroine Sophie Scholl) is a perfect reminder that no act of sacrifice is ever wasted.
All three themes are neatly drawn together in the final poem and title poem: Look At All The Women is a masterpiece of enjambment that has to be seen to be believed.
This is a truly wonderful book from a poet whose work has been aptly described as “Carol Ann Duffy crossed with Spike Milligan”.
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