Given how much she does for the poetry community—the Planet Podcast series with Peter Kenny, her monthly submissions newsletter, her blog posts, her books on getting published, launching a publisher with other folks, etc., it’s heartwarming to see the attention being placed back on Robin’s writing.
There have been four pamphlets in the ten years or so since her first book publication, and it’s interesting to note that none of the poems from those have been included in The Mayday Diaries. I’m glad Robin could accumulate enough new work in-between all that extra-curricular activity. Robin, you must tell me your secret…
The collection is divided in 4 parts. However, as I read the collection through the things that sprang to mind the most was the word tender. And tender has several meanings; caring, rawness, currency, pitching for business. And finally, it can mean a boat or ship that supports or services other vessels. Many of the poems in this collection manage to cover off at least two of these variations of tender-ness.
Let’s have a look at one that could in theory cover three of these interpretations. In ‘ At last, overboard’ we are told the story of a burial at sea. The poem itself talks about 5 folks involved. Clive, a father, is the man being buried at sea “in his best suit”. His daughters, “Cathy and her sister swaying astern / with a suitable prayer” and their mum, Clive’s wife, “too old too sad to sail but watches the launch /. steer a course from the harbour gate.”. We mustn’t, of course, forget the captain of the launch.
Clive is submitted to the deep and ready for “inspection by sinister urchins, pop-eyed / squid and lanternfish. To my mind this covers caring as they address Clive being “determined to walk the plank”, rawness as “Cathy and her sister brush the wind from their eyes” and finally, well, they are almost literally in a tender.
I will note that there isn’t an equal distribution of tender-ness. The poems tend to focus rawness and caring. The opening section covers quite a lot of rawness, from the career in marketing where she tries “to hide my terror” in ‘Help’, and utters the almost title line at the end, “M’aidez, m’aidez.” to the literal rawness of ‘On a day a nurse unstapled my breast’. The poem is about an appointment following a breast cancer operation.
I wake up to silence, not howling.
in the bathroom mirror again
there’s my pissed-off breast
under a duvet of wadding
As an opening line it’s strong stuff. Where had that howling come from that wasn’t now there? Was it external or internal? Is this a sign of new strength or strength found again?
The poem is set on the day of the Brexit referendum, and talks of putting
[…]one foot
in front of the other then the other
in front of the first and after a few steps
I have the hang of it the hanged
man of it
I think the “hanged man” here is Tarot-related and speaks of the things associated with that card` Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. It’s easy to see how most of this could apply and how speaks of carrying on in the face of things, but while I’m not sure the Brexit link would have been obvious without the notes, the other reading of the card is: Selfishness, the crowd, the body politic. And again, that makes sense. And adds further bite to the last stanza of the poem. I’m not going quote it here, but I think you should seek it out immediately. Maybe by buying a copy of the book here.
Alongside the opening work poems, the poems exploring an affair, and family relationships are all particularly strong. I don’t think pulling short quotes from them would do any of them justice, but I would point you towards ‘I’m looking through a lattice of magnolia’, previously published on a website you might know as an example of the caring and rawness in one place. NB you can also hear Robin read it here. The elegance and imagery are wonderful; the poem sells us a dummy until the very last couplet. It speaks volumes about Houghton’s ability to cover a lot of ground quickly and make everything count.
The final poem to draw your attention to is the final poem of the collection. Shorn of its ekphrastic beginnings or prompt as part of the now sadly defunct Visual Verse, the poem takes a while to get into, but as with so much ekphrastic work a bit of time spent with it can reveal more than perhaps the original prompt.
The poem conjures up images of Old Testament families, totem poles, implicit criticism of the rubbish Star Wars prequels and sequels, sidekicks getting centre stage for a change and, finally, acting as a call for help at the end. Throw in nods to E.T. and Toy Story and that’s not bad for a poem written in an hour (or less) and while it’s not representative of the collection, it sort of can be as well.
While there are a few of the more experimental poems in the collection that didn’t land for me, I think this is a case of it’s not you, it’s me. The Mayday Diaries is a collection filled with dread, terror and pain. The Mayday Diaries is also a collection filled with joy, hope, laughter, fun, and balms. It leaves us thinking someone is coming. For good or for ill is up to you to decide once you’ve read the book.
The Mayday Diaries is available from Pindrop Press for £12.00 + P&P
Further reading
A post about the cover art of The Mayday Diaries
https://robinhoughtonpoetry.co.uk/2025/05/28/the-mayday-diaries-cover-art-whats-it-all-about/
Robin provides a few notes on her website for some of the poems, rather than on the last pages.
Robin’s excellent mailing list for up to date submissions information
https://robinhoughtonpoetry.co.uk/poetry-magazines-submissions-information/
Mat Riches is ITV’s unofficial poet-in-residence. He co-runs Rogue Strands poetry evenings. His debut pamphlet, Collecting the Data, is out via Red Squirrel Press. He blogs at Wear The Fox Hat
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