by Lydia Hounat | Sep 30, 2022 | Reviews
Hélène Demetriades’ debut collection, The Plumb Line, charts a life in three sections. The act of ordering gives rise to measured reflection. Complicated experiences are held up to the light and this considered examination perhaps allows certain chapters...
by Leah Jun Oh | Jul 19, 2022 | News, Reviews
Publisher’s note: Leah’s thoughtful words have inspired IS&T to designate many of our reviews as ‘In Praise of’ pieces where, while still demanding thoughtful analysis as described below, we acknowledge the link between the Reviewer and Poet, as at the...
by The Repeat Beat Poet | Jul 18, 2022 | Reviews
Peter Clarke Reviews Idiolect by P.W. Bridgman P.W. Bridgman’s second collection, Idiolect, has been sitting on my desk for a while now. This has allowed me to dip into it from time to time after first reading, to be reminded of how original is...
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...