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, 10 February 2024

"Crossing the mirror line" by Judith Willson (Carcanet, 2017)

Poems from PN Review, Poetry London, Stand, Rialto, etc. I don't think I understand them. "Extracts from three humorous stories in which citizens laugh at the small troubles of their lives" is, according to the notes, "inspired by text in the Crocodile Album of Soviet Humour (Pilot Press, 1943)" which doesn't help me. The poem I feel closest to understanding is "Common Things Explained". I like some of the lines, of course -

  • I think she is memorising ... the dust eclipse under my perfume bottle (p.48)
  • When I was twenty-nine I built a house. I learned this was not the way to get home (p.59)
  • And there is no exposure long enough to make this visible (p.67)

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