A chapbook collection of poems concerning water and a circus
An obtuse look at the possible effects of global warming.
Excerpt
Remorseless
From hedgerows
where bedraggled sparrows shelter
leaf drips onto leaf
drip onto drip
and fills each hoofprint which
overflows into gateway hoofprint
From off moor and grassland
floodwater comes sparkling clear
Out of turned
and overstocked fields
the slow cascade is
silt-laden and seemingly viscous
Night-driving through chopwater floods
wagtails flicker away
from the reflected edge of yellow beams
like unformed thoughts
Professional Reviews
Carillon Magazine: Carol Thistlethwaite
A modern Noah’s Ark perhaps – only there’s no ark, no heavenly warning, just an everyday world and a flimsy canoe. In other words – global warming. Clouds form, thunder forks, rain drips through The Big Top… ice melts, birds desert, flat water rises and a few men paddle, eventually finding flotsam.
What I enjoy is the beautiful detail and rhythms such as ‘rain drips from fishbone leaves’, ‘spots of sunlight swell / and fade, swell and fade // inside the kettle’s growl’ and ‘fulmar’s black eye glances back / measuring change, measuring change’. And there are so many more examples I could have quoted.
Each poem can stand alone to reveal the raw beauty of Cumbrian coastalscapes. As a collection it links a cohesive storyline: the rain - the lure of the circus - the flood - the elephant. Each poem is a drop into waters that run deep.
An unassuming treasure. A bargain. Recommended.
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Regardless of where you may be found in love this beautiful masterpiece can be
