I like several of the pieces (mostly the ones that got into "Division Street"). "An Englishman's Guide to The Eye of the Storm" took a long time to reach the punchline. "Seascape with Palm Trees, Addenbrookes" is set in a "stiff-backed" waiting room, where "doubts find us like early morning milkmen". Then there are 4 lines about being in bed early. Then "If you were here you'd stare/ at the pictures". I don't get "stiff-backed", nor why so much time's spent on the milkmen image. Who is "you"? Part of the "us" who were in bed earlier listening to the milkman? Here's the final (of 3) stanza.
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Nobody has painted me, high in the palm trees, the sky pulling tight as addiction. When the breeze is strong I'll launch myself like a kite and all I will feel is how light, how weightless you are in my veins |
"high" (as a kite) and "tight" are emphasised by being at line-endings, and "addiction" plus "veins" add to the theme. The kite (bird) can launch itself, but a kite toy can't, so the phrasing seems awkward to me.
Other reviews
- Matt Merritt (It’s only when she starts trying a bit too hard—for example on a poem like ‘The day the cat got his tongue’ —that she hits the odd bum note.)
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