Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Wednesday 1 November 2000

"Sky Nails" by Jamie McKendrick (Faber and Faber, 2000)

Tom Paulin's poetry book of the year. It's a "New and Selected", each text of text taking about 100 days to produce on average. "Et In Orcadia Ego" is the sort of prose who appearance in poetry books I never understand. There's a trace of the same style in the "Mountain" section, but poems like "Lengths of Air" in particular add something else. "Home Thoughts" adds human interest without lessening the metaphors. Metaphors take over in pieces like "Bridge" from "A Flight of Locks". I like "Name-Tag" best because it's a longer poem that isn't weakened by the use of prose narrative.

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