"Excisions" by Clare Best (Waterloo Press, 2011)

Poems from London magazine, Magma, Rialto, etc. 3 sections - "Matryoshka" (family history), "Self-portrait with Breasts" and "Airborne".

The first few poems are promising, with a level of difficulty that suits me. The book sustains that quality and level. Seldom does a poem completely stump me - "Circus, Santa Catarina" is an example. Many of the poems have stanzas with a set number of lines - 2, 3 or 4 usually (and to me rather arbitrarily). Sometimes no line-breaks are used. "Who" (4 couplets) has an abab rhyme pattern. "Clear-out" is in loosely rhymed couplets. "question" is in an xaxa scheme, the rhymed lines indented. I didn't notice any other poem using end-rhymes.

The odd poem seems dutiful, documenting a significant moment without adding much more. I read poetry books from front to back during several sessions, so when I read pages 7-9 I didn't know whether the quality had slipped after a strong start, or whether I was having an off day. The subject matter is familiar, as is the restrained language ending with a poignant little twist. A daughter arrives with her father at her wedding ("no looking back ..."). A father stays in the car rather than get out with his daughter to see his dying wife ("the tissues on the table well beyond reach"). A family scatters ashes ("We'll each scatter some of her here, he says. That's fair").

Some of the pieces in the second section relate brutal facts. I think it's the best section.

The "Airborne" section lacks the formal variety of the first section, and the intensity of the second (or they're just as intense and I have a "happiness writes white" bias). The poems are often more celebratory, recalling or depicting moments of joy. There are still poems (e.g. "Sum") that I feel I don't get. "Another advent", "Partners" (which I rather like) and "Drive time" are single-idea poems (nearly lists) that, unlike similarly structured poems earlier on, seem too long.

My favourites are "Feast", "Countdown", "Recovery room", "The nipple place", and "The bookbinder".