The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Book Reviews

The eyes of the Bard almost like he's looking through a letterbox, on a yellow rectangle on an off white background

Go long

Hilary Menos reviews Notes on the Sonnets by Luke Kennard (Penned in the Margins, 2021), winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021
Dark grey circle with a light grey line drawn eel circling within. It sits on a textured grey background that could be an abstract shoal of eels.

I was nothing but a heretic cormorant

Rory Waterman reviews The European Eel by Steve Ely (Longbarrow, 2021)
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)
a watercolour with multicoloured ribbons with arrow shaped ends swirling on a blue textured background. There are some rectangle frames at a variety of angles.

The thing itself

Charlotte Gann reviews When the Swimming Pool Fell in the Sea by Carole Coates (Shoestring, 2021)
The word C+nto in white text on a gold background, underneath is the text "& othered poems" in black. Both fonts are serif.

Her fear is a dress she can no longer fit into

Bruno Cooke reviews C+nto: & Othered Poems by Joelle Taylor (Saqi Books, 2021)
Silhouette of a woman's face looking to the right of the image, her features are obscured be autumnal trees superimposed on the silhouette

But what are these woods anyway?

Book Review: Fiona Moore reviews Thinking with Trees by Jason Allen-Paisant (Carcanet, 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)
Black and white image showing agricultural machinery on a large field with a dark brooding sky, the image has been rotated 90 degrees.

Hearts pressed with aspic

Emma Simon reviews Field Requiem by Sheri Benning (Carcanet, 2021)
Slug by Hollie McNish, orange text on a purple background

Slug snog

Bruno Cooke reviews Slug by Hollie McNish (Little, Brown, 2021)
Photo of a meat market porter at work

The page my barrow and my charge the word

Book Review: Stephen Payne reviews The Resurrectionists by John Challis (Bloodaxe, 2021)
Front cover of Lyonesse by Penny Shuttle. A watercolour of the sea and cliffs depicting many creatures underwater and a long serpentine body emerging with a female human head.

Looking for the ones who will never be found

Hilary Menos reviews Lyonesse by Penny Shuttle (Bloodaxe, 2021)
Book cover of 'Time' by Etel Adnan

Today I see eternity everywhere

Clare Best reviews Time by Etel Adnan, translated from the French by Sarah Riggs (Nightboat Books, New York, 2019)