The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Book Reviews

It's written and can't be amended, this book

It’s written and can’t be amended, this book

Charlotte Gann reviews The Long Habit of Living by M.R. Peacocke (HappenStance, 2021)
Front cover of book 'When I Think of my Body as a Horse' by Wendy Pratt, showing a horse with musculature visible

Body, you are beautiful, you are beautiful

Mat Riches reviews When I Think of my Body as a Horse by Wendy Pratt (Smith|Doorstop, 2021)
Close up of the two book covers, the Hit Points Anthologies, one red one green

I don’t think Death has used a PlayStation before

Bruno Cooke reviews Hit Points — an anthology of video game poetry, edited by Aaron Kent and Matthew Haigh (Broken Sleep, 2021)
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)
Visions of Juana

Visions of Juana

Mat Riches reviews Citadel by Martha Sprackland (Liverpool University Press, 2020)
part of the cover of the book The Slowing Ride by Will Stone; looks like broken glazed tiles in turquoise and green and grey, there's a bit of a female face in the middle but mostly it's just cracked and weird

Then the great wheel began to turn

Richie McCaffery reviews The Slowing Ride by Will Stone (Shearsman, 2020)
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)
Part of the front cover of The Out-Islands by Martin Edwards showing what looks like an abstract yellow boat

Surfers, swimmers and drowned sailors

Hilary Menos reviews The Out-Islands by Martin Edwards (Smokestack, 2021)
Part of the front cover of 'Little Piece of Harm' by Chris Jones showing a wet puddle ion a pavement n the dark, in an urban setting

A man was shot not far from where we live

Emma Simon reviews Little Piece of Harm by Chris Jones (Longbarrow, 2020)
Book cover The Coming-Down Time by Robert Selby showing two rustic types planting a tree

An England both fertile and funereal

Richie McCafferey reviews The Coming-Down Time by Robert Selby (Shoestring, 2020)
Crop from cover of RENDANG by Will Harris, bright red blue and yellow letters on white

You can never know for certain whose head you’re in

Mat Riches reviews RENDANG by Will Harris (Granta, 2020), winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2020
green front cover of poetry book How To Wash A Heart by Bhanu Kapil

A literature that is not made of literature

Hilary Menos reviews How To Wash A Heart by Bhanu Kapil, winner of the TS Eliot Prize 2020