Posts By: Jeremy Wikeley
Review: ‘The Fall at Home: New and Collected Aphorisms’ by Don Paterson
Aphorisms are not poems. But the way in which they may or may not resemble poems might tell us something about poetry. The hope is they will tell us other things too. As a poet and critic many of Don Paterson’s aphorisms in The Fall at Home tell us about poems and poets. For instance:…
Jeremy Wikeley
Review: ‘All this is implied’ by Will Harris
Will Harris distrusts fixed perspectives. At the same time, his experiments on the boundaries of poetry and prose are underpinned by the sort of phrasing that converts lines into permanent memories. In this debut HappenStance pamphlet, he addresses the ambiguity of identity and inheritance. For Harris, who has an English father and a Chinese Indonesian…
Jeremy Wikeley
Re: Review: ‘White Hills’ by Chloe Stopa-Hunt
What is it that makes poetry special, different, or unique? What makes a poet important? The answer must lie somewhere beyond form or subject – beyond, that is to say, anything I am able to mention here. The poems in White Hills (Clinic) have been described as ‘weirdly beautiful’, possessed of a ‘strange grandeur’. These…
Jeremy Wikeley
Review: ‘Santiago’ by Cheryl Follon
Prose poems have been in season for a while now, but Cheryl Follon’s Santiago (Bloodaxe) has the potential to sweep away fatigue. The collection, Follon’s third, is entirely made up of brief prose pieces; the results are engaging and, frequently, very funny. Prose poetry is not without its pitfalls. For the writer, the risk of falling…
Jeremy Wikeley
Review: ‘Psalmody’ by Maria Apichella
Maria Apichella’s first collection, Psalmody (Eyewear), ends on a note of quiet, confident affirmation: I can’t play the sax I can’t bang the drum I can’t work the flute I can’t pick the harp but I can respond. Apichella’s tough, lyrical psalm-poems celebrate the virtue of responsiveness, suggesting the possibility of a deeper,…
Jeremy Wikeley