by The Repeat Beat Poet | Jun 7, 2022 | Reviews
At the start of this powerful first collection we encounter careful, affectionate observations of animals, flowers and birds: cuckoo, red kite, heron, wren, sparrow, ‘incense of wild thyme, garlic, blooming beneath my feet’, (SOUTH DOWNS) around an...
by Helen Ivory | May 23, 2022 | Reviews
On reading Sue Hubbard’s collection Swimming to Albania, the concept that comes to mind is saudade. A. F. G. Bell writes in his study In Portugal, published in 1912:‘The famous saudade of the Portuguese is a vague and constant desire for something that...
by Leah Jun Oh | Apr 27, 2022 | Reviews
“If music be the food of love” is one of Uncle Hagop’s favourite lines, so we are told in ‘Uncle Hagop in Stratford-upon-Avon’. But for his niece, Sarah, the food of love is food itself. In happy memories of teenage visits to the Armenian...
by Leah Jun Oh | Apr 20, 2022 | Reviews
“For the leadwood trees of Mmadikola. Ya matswere a Mmadikola” is the dedication that award-winning New Generation African poet TJ Dema offers at the start of this excellent chapbook to a species of tree found in southern Africa. Indicating the timber’s...
by Leah Jun Oh | Apr 13, 2022 | Reviews
Barry Smith’s debut poetry collection is a cornucopia of his rich life and artistic experiences. These poems draw on his life as an educator, theatre director, music lover; Smith directs the South Down Poetry Festival, co- ordinates Chichester’s summer...
by Helen Ivory | Mar 14, 2022 | Reviews
Award-winning poet Rosie Jackson is in her element with her latest pamphlet, Light Makes it Easy. Richly informed by literary and spiritual antecedents, these poems are also completely themselves – both modern and mystical, intimate and universal. There’s...
