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.

Saturday 8 February 2020

"The long haul" by Alan Buckley (HappenStance, 2016)

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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