Poems from The North, Smiths Knoll, etc, and a 3rd-prize winner from the Bridport too.
Mostly easy-going nostalgia/observation, with imagery plus commentary - "The fibs and half-truths, lies and leadings-on/ of small roads are a fabrication/ and fabric of a history that's dumb/ but deeper than dates, and goes further in" (p.13); "the sunhat left/ in the deckchair's sag by a parent called inside/ by a trimphone" (p.14).
I liked "On learning a poem by Peter Didsbury" - an idea I've not seen before. "Famous last words" and "A short piece of choral music" don't work for me. The title poem seems weak to me though it won a 2nd prize. And the success of "The Sudden Shower" in the Bridport puzzles me. I don't think I'm very good with appreciating deceptively simple poems.
I think there's a typo on p.51 - "Your sleep with be full" should be "Your sleep will be full".
