Reviews

An old black and white photo of two kids, one older boy and a younger girl.

Catch the heart off guard and blow it open

Annie Fisher reviews Skin & Blister by Blake Morrison (Mariscat, 2023)

Imagine a map, then make the canvas black and take away everything apart from the roads (in off-white) and some dots where settlements might be, there you have it.

玫瑰, गुलाब, rose

D.A. Prince reviews After all we have travelled by Sarala Estruch (Nine Arches Press, 2023)

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)

Light green textured paper background with two off-centre white dots.

And far away a writer drawing a breath

Regina Weinert reviews Uneasy Pieces by Nancy Campbell (Guillemot Press 2022)

Black background with the face of a china doll, cracked, with piercing blue eyes.

Your gift living on in cracked pots carried from garden to garden

Maggie Mackay reviews The Doll's Hospital by Jenny Robb (Yaffle, 2022)

A thin black diagonal line running from top right to bottom left separates two blocks of colour, one orange, one white

Deep fake, rush fade, tilt shift, whip pan, smash cut

Jane Routh reviews Dream into Play by Richard Skinner (Poetry Salzburg, 2022)

A fifties-style graphic showing the rocky surface of a planet with coloured moons and asteroids. The words 'Space Baby' are superimposed in white.

Maybe it’s already gone supernova

Carl Tomlinson reviews Space Baby by Suzannah Evans (Nine Arches, 2022)

A predominantly black and white old photograph of an oldish woman standing if front of a stone house, arms akimbo. She is dressed in black and wearing a black bonnet-like hat. Her apron is in colour and embroidered with large primitive flower shapes.

Ce n’est pas une métaphore

Hilary Menos reviews Our Lady of Tyres / Notre dame des pneus by Claire Trévien, translated from English to French by Marie Lando (Broken Sleep Books, 2022)

A paper cutout of the front steps to Steven Spender's house. It is a blue townhouse and stone steps lead to the front door. Leaves are on the ground, giving an autumnal air.

A single umbrella is enough to start a revolution

Matthew Stewart reviews The Storm in the Piano by Christopher James (Maytree Press, 2022),

A background of the stock exchange with the words "The economist can tell you about your bank balance, but the poet has a window into your soul" superimposed

Like worms on the corruption in which they are bred

Hilary Menos reviews The Poets’ Guide to Economics by John Ramsden (Pallas Athene, 2022)

Slightly abstract painting in block colours, Yellow, beige, green, grey, sky blue, representing a building, the sky with a sun or a moon and a single window. oh, and some bricks

Whichever life we live, it’s the other calls

Carl Tomlinson reviews Hotel Anonymous by Mike Barlow (Pindrop, 2021)

Colourful almost paisley image with curving floral designs in the foreground on a background of blue white with brown tendril like patterns

When you are being eaten by vultures they will leave your face alone

Hilary Menos reviews Jongleur by Rennie Parker (Shoestring, 2021)