Category Archives: Poetry

Lent 13: two poems featuring spiders

Posted on March 5, 2012 by impeus

Naomi Foyle’s The Night Pavilion is a book of three distinct parts, though each one remains differently varied. Not afraid of the coarse or erotic, the second part (“Aphrodite’s Answering Machine”) contains, amongst other erotica, new definitions of words for … Continue reading →

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Lent 11: Liberation

Posted on March 3, 2012 by impeus

I bought Ros Barber’s collection How Things Are On Thursday despite it having not being (to my knowledge) mentioned in the PBS Bulletin. This is most unlike me. I did however, for some reason, get a small flyer with one … Continue reading →

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Lent 10. Child Burial

Posted on March 2, 2012 by impeus

I almost didn’t share this poem by Paula Meehan, because it’s not really the kind of subject you “share” as such, not without warning. Don’t read if a poem about the death of a child is likely to upset you … Continue reading →

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Lent 9: Moniza Alvi

Posted on March 1, 2012 by impeus

I’ve been wanting to share some Moniza Alvi, but the collection I have, Europa, is a bit dark. Europa starts with an exploration of PTSD, then as Alvi reminds us that ‘trauma’ comes from the Greek (meaning pierced skin), it … Continue reading →

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Lent 8: The Darkness of her Meekness

Posted on February 29, 2012 by impeus

I’ve mentioned my ‘problem’ with Selima Hill before. As a poet whose work I don’t really get, she has quite clearly managed to get under my skin as I own no less than six of her collections. Somehow, when I … Continue reading →

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Lent 7: Wendy Cope, and, for comic effect, Ted Hughes

Posted on February 28, 2012 by impeus

I’m going to share another Wendy Cope poem, simply because I want to share her anecdote about why schools are crap at poetry. In 2008 she released a “new & selected” book called Two Cures for Love. About this book, … Continue reading →

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Lent 6: The Mourner

Posted on February 27, 2012 by impeus

Today I am actually sharing work from a poet whose collection I haven’t bought. Yet. Zoe Brigley studied and taught at Warwick University while some good friends of mine were there, and her new collection, Conquest, is a Poetry Book … Continue reading →

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Lent 5: Hedgehog

Posted on February 26, 2012 by impeus

I remember being really excited to see that the Poetry Book Society had chosen Polly Clark’s Take Me with You as their Winter choice in 2005. I’d seen Clark’s poetry in Mslexia and liked it, even if I didn’t really … Continue reading →

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Lent 4: Cathedral

Posted on February 25, 2012 by impeus

I wish I had remembered, two years ago, that Sinéad Morrissey’s Through the Square Window was written between her first pregnancy and the first two weeks of her second child’s life. Of course, while I’d have particularly appreciated a lot … Continue reading →

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Easter: a real indulgence

Posted on February 24, 2012 by impeus

You may or may not be familiar with my Lenten poetry challenge. I’m sharing a poem a day throughout Lent in lieu of actually giving up anything. Anyway – I believe Easter is when you can start indulging again. Spring … Continue reading →

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