Poems from TLS, Poetry Review, Poetry London, Oxford Poetry, The North, LRB, etc.
Just about every page bewilders me. I can see the odd neat phrase or piece of observation. And there's no lack of variety in the presentation - rhyme, abcedarian, prose, bullet-marks, multiple choice, short-lines, gaps in fully aligned lines. When I think I do understand a piece (e.g. "A British Summer", "Album") it seems rather slight. "Butterfly" is 8 lines of tight rhyme, and the language is clear. I was ready for something about transience or transformation. I think I got a dream or a riddle. "A Tick-Box Life" includes this multiple choice question - "Is a purposeless existence making you sad? If nothing else presents itself, you can always ..." with only one option offered - "Teach".
In "The Smiles" the narrator sees smiles erupt until finally "a smile reverses in a space too small for smiles a calls back// a smile avoids the cracks a smile stooping for a penny finds a pound/ a smile agrees a smile is at the door and someone lets it in".
In "An ABC of Winter" "Perhaps the winter has/ Our future planned/ And means to cover/ Every scrap of land./ Unlike those sheep,/ My lad, I understand./ The wind is difficult:/ Its operatic moans/ A touch too grand" - which I understand at some level - perhaps because it's "for my son" - but it seems minor. I understand - even like - "Lost Things" about a dead father returning to a house, noticing changes. I suspect it's an idea that's been done before. In "Happly Ever After", some typos are corrected in the margin - but only one per line, e.g. - "lak of rithum no exgus we tuch sea excuse"
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