The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Book Reviews

Watercolour-style illustration showing an olive branch with a goat standing on a leaf on the left and a man sitting on a leaf to the right.

An guish / rather than a guish

Tim Murphy reviews 54 Poems: Selected and New by John Levy (Shearsman Books, 2023)
Close up of a parchment coloured map showing Spanish place names written in italic script.

Holding on against the ebb

Christopher James reviews Whatever You Do, Just Don’t by Matthew Stewart (HappenStance, 2023)
The blue violinist by Marc Chagall showing aviolinist dressed in blue:green on a blue background. His cheeks are red and he has a white bird on his shoulder.

Writing this warring world

Jeremy Wikeley reviews Vevel’s Violin by Jacqueline Saphra (Nine Arches Press, 2023)
Section from a book cover. The background is purple and some block capital letters in pink , yellow, green and white are arranged in a uniform block pattern.

Time to swim

Richie McCaffery reviews Hard Drive by Paul Stephenson (Carcanet, 2023)
Pieces of text in red and gold on a dark blue book cover.

Waves of lavender shadow growing darker in their blueness

Alan Buckley reviews Up Late by Nick Laird (Faber, 2023)
Painting in bright colours showing a copse of trees.

The forest’s edge

Charlotte Gann reviews Beyond the Gate by Clare Best (Worple Press, 2023)
A yellow squiggle on a greyish background. Well I suppose, given the subject matter, it could be a mathematical symbol. But if you just think squiggle you'll probably be closer.

They cannot subtract me

Stephen Payne reviews Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science by Jessy Randall (Goldsmiths Press, 2022)
Whimsical illustration showing a hill with roads twisting between rocks and a castle atop.

Something honeylike that makes me lean in closer

D.A. Prince reviews Before We Go Any Further by Tristram Fane Saunders (Carcanet, 2023)
Abstract. A red splodge on a black splurge on a yellow squidge.

* […] Mol is an imaginary friend, the latest fad everyone wants to get their hands on [go to page 18]

Isabelle Thompson reviews Making Sense by Dide (Verve Poetry, 2023)
Illustration showing a stylised dandelion head with the seeds blowing around. A red ribbon curls across the page.

A tinderbox to light all the world’s wanting

Rachael Matthews reviews The Home Child by Liz Berry (Chatto & Windus, 2023)
Ink line drawing on crumpled cartridge paper. A round face looks almost like a tribal mask with an open mouth and a block bad around and across the eyes (though we can still see the eyes). The nose is a triangle.

No one wears Brooches anymore

Hilary Menos reviews Savage Tales by Tara Bergin (Carcanet, 2022
Section of a book cover. The background is blue and parts of the letters A and F are shown in a bold yellow font.

To hear their voice bounce off the shape of things

Rory Waterman reviews This Afterlife: Selected Poems by A. E. Stallings (Carcanet, 2022)