{"id":1264,"date":"2008-06-01T19:50:05","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T19:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2008-06-01T19:50:05","modified_gmt":"2008-06-01T19:50:05","slug":"catherine-edmunds-reviewed-by-john-irvine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/catherine-edmunds-reviewed-by-john-irvine\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Edmunds reviewed by John Irvine"},"content":{"rendered":"

wormwood, earth and honey<\/span><\/p>\n

by Catherine Edmunds
(85 pages, Paperback, Circaidy Gregory Press, 2008, ISBN: 978-1-906451-04-2)<\/p>\n

Reviewed for IS&T by John Irvine<\/p>\n

Catherine Edmunds\u2019 new book of verse wormwood, earth and honey<\/span> recently released by and available directly from Circaidy Gregory Press, could not have got off to a better start for me. The cover art, her own creation, is my kind of art: bold brush strokes, visual texture and rich colours. In fact, the cover art has an almost ethereal marine feel to it.<\/p>\n

 I am familiar with Catherine\u2019s work, and have been fortunate enough to read it on many occasions. There is, though, a vast difference between reading the odd offering and reviewing an entire volume. Firstly, I chose poems at random from throughout the book, reading to set within my mind a \u2018feel\u2019 for the collection. Then I took it quietly and slowly, as the exceptional poetry herein deserves to be taken. What a smorgasbord of sensations I encountered:<\/p>\n

\u2022 whimsy:
Eric was fashionably dressed
in bumptious cumulo nimbus<\/p>\n

\u2022 enigma:
a cave beneath a jasmine tree, full of secrets
dying leaves, wormcasts, earth and honey<\/p>\n

\u2022 deviousness:
whereupon it (the wind)
transmogrified into a golden retriever<\/p>\n

\u2022 and glorious madness:
Erik laughed with the sound of thistles
waggled antennae and smirked at Mavis<\/p>\n

Catherine is no superficial poet awash with jolly statements that cannot possibly be misinterpreted. She is a thinker\u2019s poet, a writer whose words very often conceal and beguile, and whose meanings frequently wear the camouflage of allegory and metaphor. If you want the most from her poetry, you will have to think about it. This is not a book for skimming during a free moment in the lavatory. Even her humour requires careful attention.<\/p>\n

She is a compelling storyteller, weaving complex and sometimes lyrical tales with surprisingly few words. There\u2019s no waste with this poet. Every word, every line break, every nuance is calculated for maximum effect. The lady handles drama, sentiment, nonsense and humour with equal aplomb. Catherine is what every seriously talented poet must be: a gimlet-eyed observer.<\/p>\n

She is also versatile. Not content with just the contemporary style of free verse, she is equally at home with the sonnet (a particular favourite of mine,) haiku\/senryu and a plethora of other styles and fancies. Pernickety paragons of punctuation will be disappointed. There isn\u2019t a lot of it. For me, though, the lack of it gives Catherine\u2019s work a sense of immediacy and sometimes restlessness that I like very much indeed.<\/p>\n

 So\u2026 if stolen hedgehogs, unrequited love, heroic prunes, things called Eric, romantic mittens, unhappy penguins, myth and legend and assorted other unforgettable characters are your meat and spuds, then this book is for you. But make no mistake: this book is not just about fun and games. There is a very serious underbelly throughout this book. Sometimes angry, sometimes hopeless, sometimes just plain glorious. It\u2019s all in there:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Anger:
his foot\u2019s kicked a twelve inch monkey wrench
he picks it up, nods once to the car
then goes to look for his mother<\/p>\n

\u2022 Hopelessness:
it\u2019s not a police matter
they\u2019re just bruises
they\u2019ll heal<\/p>\n

\u2022 Glory:
as clouds gather
walk with me in colour<\/p>\n

A favourite piece? Well, I think I\u2019d have to confess and say that \u2018grandfather\u2019s beard\u2019 took my fancy. Perhaps not the most deeply meaningful of Catherine\u2019s offerings, but it is dry and wry enough to purse my mouth\u2026 with laughter. Or maybe \u2018The Ballad of Shane and Mavis.\u2019 Or perhaps even\u2026<\/p>\n

To sum up: this delightfully complex volume of poetry will please any reader who likes to take their time, ponder a lot and gaze at the heavens, but someone who also has a sense of the ridiculous. If I had one regret it would be that Catherine didn\u2019t see fit to sprinkle a number of her wonderful drawings throughout the book. I give this book my Supreme Golden Syrup Pudding Award\u2026 I read it twice before lunch, and now I\u2019m off back for thirds.<\/p>\n

Here is one her poems from the collection<\/p>\n

bike<\/span>
 <\/p>\n

he sat on his motorbike
garish, resplendent,
in periwig, surcoat and pantaloons
 
he waited
we waited
they waited
all waited
for the fish underneath him to ripen
 
and when it did
the fumes exuded
took him to Tajikistan
(and back)
and then all the way to France<\/p>\n

\u2022 Catherine Edmunds
<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

wormwood, earth and honey by Catherine Edmunds(85 pages, Paperback, Circaidy Gregory Press, 2008, ISBN: 978-1-906451-04-2) Reviewed for IS&T by John Irvine Catherine Edmunds\u2019 new book of verse wormwood, earth and honey recently released by and available directly from Circaidy Gregory Press, could not have got off to a better start for me. The cover art, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}