Poems from Ambit, The Dark Horse, Oxford Poetry, The Rialto, etc.
"Flame", "Sherbet Lemons" and "Being a beautiful woman" all start well, keep going and end even better. I won't quote from them because it might spoil your future reading of these pieces. "Loch Ness" has a good plot but is too long, or doesn't have enough of a twist.
4 poems in, and I've already read enough to justify the pamphlet. After that though, there's nothing quite as good. "His Failure" uses assonance between pairs of lines.
Other reviews
- Marion Tracy, Carl Tomlinson, Charlotte Gann (There are ghosts, and hauntings: gaps where people have been lost or never born. But time and again I’m struck by the choice of frame)
- Matthew Stewart (This is an unusual pamphlet by an unusual poet, one who quietly grafts and grafts away, before presenting us with sure-footed piece after sure-footed piece.)
- Alison Brackenbury (Buckley’s work is assured, often unshowy: ‘I bring you no fireworks.’ But I remember this claim with admiring disbelief at the end of his astounding poem, ‘Sherbert Lemons’.)
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