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The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

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Steven Lovatt

is the author of Birdsong in a Time of Silence (Particular Books, 2021), shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Prize. Over the last decade his reviews and critical articles on Welsh and European literature have been published in New Welsh Review, Planet, Critical Survey and the Literary Encyclopaedia. He teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Bristol, and copy-edits books on ethnography and philosophy from his home in Swansea.

    Concentrated radiance

    Concentrated radiance

    Steven Lovatt reviews Ceremony for the Nameless by Theresa Lola (Penguin, 2024)
    Artwork in a graphic style showing the back of a man walking towards a tall building with many windows. The sky appears to be on fire.

    That day when we can watch it fall

    Steven Lovatt reviews Joe Hill Makes His Way into the Castle by Katy Evans-Bush (CB Editions, 2024)
    What looks like an old, hand-drawn parchment map. There are lots of words written – 'Iwerddon' and 'Byzantium' are two of them.

    Cofiwch Dryweryn!

    Steven Lovatt reviews Wild Cherry by Nigel Jenkins (Parthian Books, 2023)
    Photograph a woman standing in sand with a coat on. She has left footprints.

    Our small Homeric lives

    Steven Lovatt reviews Dead Letters by Carole Coates (Shoestring, 2023)
    Image from a book illustrating the dialect poem 'The Lion and Albert' showing four people in Edwardian dress discussing something. The picture is titled 'The manager had to be sent for.'

    Ah, bostid is the golden bowel!

    Steven Lovatt on dialect poetry
    Mostly orange and orange tinted cover showing what looks like a woman's face half hidden by something that appears to be a vertical semi transparent column with thin diagonal white stripes on it.

    Monsoon night-song

    Steven Lovatt reviews Mother of Flip-Flops by Mukahang Limbu (Out-Spoken Press, 2022)
    Appears to be a watercolour painting in a block graphic style representing sea in the foreground and a sandy seashore behind. The whole thing has a slightly swirly pattern visible. A bit like the circle marks on an artex ceiling, but more artistic.

    The wonders this lens can do!

    Steven Lovatt reviews Ferenc Juhász: Selected Poems translated by David Wevill (Shearsman, 2022)
    Paul Muldoon standing in front of a grey wall looking 'ard. He has grey curly hair and glasses, and he is wearing a brown tweed jacket and tie and a dark shirt.

    With a pink and a pink and a pinkie-pick

    Unpack a Poem: Steven Lovatt on 'The Loaf' by Paul Muldoon
    An image taken from the book cover, Its shows a bit the the name Emily in yellow text and the first six letters of the word "unexhausted" in blue text. The background is shocking pink

    Strung like an archer’s bow

    Steven Lovatt reviews Unexhausted Time by Emily Berry (Faber, 2022)
    Black shapes on a bright pink/purple background. On the shapes the word amino is written in vertical fragments "AM" "N" "IO" "N"

    Dealing in shards

    Steven Lovatt reviews Amnion by Stephanie Sy-Quia (Granta, 2021)
    What does Steven Lovatt say?

    What does Steven Lovatt say?

    How did I get into poetry? Externally, having librarians for parents helped. Temperamentally it’s more complicated ...
    Three pamphlet covers arranged in a fan shape, one has a photograph of a river crossing sand to the sea, one has what looks like an abstract pattern of leaves in shades of brown and one is very pale green with block text in a kind of marbled pattern.

    Three pamphlets: Matthew Hollis, Holly Singlehurst and Gboyega Odubanjo

    Steven Lovatt reviews Leaves by Matthew Hollis, Mat Riches reviews The Sea Turned Thick as Honey by Holly Singlehurst, and Hilary Menos reviews Aunty Uncle Poems by Gboyega Odubanjo
    black white head shot of the poet, he is looking upwards to the left and his chin is resting in his hand

    I’d found a home

    Steven Lovatt on reading poetry in translation, discovering Czesław Miłosz’s anthology Post-War Polish Poets, and the style and sensibility of Zbigniew Herbert
    The Words Cheryl's Destinies in slightly curly script are seen twice, a white version reflecting a pink version both on a black background.

    Like a bride with a posy of stout

    Steven Lovatt reviews Cheryl’s Destinies by Stephen Sexton (Penguin, 2021)
    Selima Hill wearing a scarf around her neck and a headscarf/bandanna type of thing. It looks good.

    Distracted by eyelashes

    Steven Lovatt reviews Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill (Bloodaxe, 2021)
    Heft

    Heft

    In the first of our occasional series on words that have editors reaching for the red pen, Steven Lovatt eviscerates ‘heft’
    Book cover of Restorations by Rosalind Hudis. It's abstract art, or maybe a picture of mountains, in blue and dark red against pale pink.

    In the end it was a matter of woodworm

    Steven Lovatt reviews Restorations by Ros Hudis (Seren, 2021)
    Front cover of 'Still' by Christopher Meredith showing two small black birds perched on a tree branch in the snow

    Halfway between stillness and flight

    Steven Lovatt reviews Still by Christopher Meredith (Seren, 2021)
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    28/01/2022

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