The Friday Poem
Welcome to The Friday Poem. Every Friday morning we post one review or feature, plus a poem selected from the collection under discussion. If you subscribe, this comes straight into your inbox ready for you to enjoy with your mid-morning beverage. This week, Jane Routh reviews Okapi by Fiona Moore (Blue Diode Press, 2024). Routh says “What is most interesting about Okapi is its form. This is a long poem – over fifty pages.” The Friday Poem is on Substack too – come and take a look.
Okapi
was my best word my favourite creature
her graceful stripey oddness went with her name
I said it and said it
playing with my plastic zoo putting her
alongside leopard zebra lion giraffe
whose bright patterns on the carpet’s worn savannah
made the world that began to age at my birth
bright too was my grandparents’ lawn
thick with miniature flowers from which sprang
between each mowing
daisies I picked for chains
stroking their petals tipped with the cochineal
granny mixed into her apple snow
Jane Routh reviews Okapi by Fiona Moore (Blue Diode Press, 2024)
Browse the last six weeks’ reviews and features below, or have a look in our Archive for posts dating back to 2021