The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Book Reviews

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)
Part of a painting showing the inside of a house and a long corridor. The lighting suggests it could be evening.

A basic beginning in tegnsprog

Carl Tomlinson reviews The House of the Interpreter by Lisa Kelly (Carcanet, 2023)
Pen and ink slightly washed out picture of a man's face.

The weight of history

Matthew Paul reviews Selected Poems 1983–2023 by Ian Parks (Calder Valley Poetry, 2023)
A study in blue. It looks like a close up of large heads of coral in an eerie blue light.

Unfashionable almost to the point of provocation

Victoria Moul reviews Arctic Elegies by Peter Davidson (Carcanet, 2022)
Print (an old one by the, look of it) showing a large (for 'large' read enormous) snail with much smaller people wearing hats trying to subdue it with ropes. Some policemen wave sticks and seem to be engaged in a dance ... but maybe it's more sinister! Who knows?

Working off the movement of the earth in space

D.A. Prince reviews Dynamo by Luke Samuel Yates (The Poetry Business, 2023)
Section of book cover. Here we have another in our endless series of abstract art poetry book covers. This is probably from a painting. splashes of bright colours and faded splurges in muted shades blend together as a background whilst bold horizontal slashes of red paint dominate the foreground.

All the blues and greens

Isabelle Thompson reviews Say It With Me by Vanessa Lampert (Seren, 2023)
Pastel shades, probably watercolour, showing a bedroom interior with an open window and a traditional iron bedstead.

These moments, rare and marvellous

Jane Routh reviews The Guest Room by Diana Hendry (Worple Press, 2022)
Close up of a medlar tree showing green leaves and purple fruit.

A Community Reimagined

Chris Edgoose reviews Medlars by Geraldine Clarkson (Shearsman, 2023)
Woodcuts seem to be very popular as illustrations for poetry book covers. This looks like it is indeed a woodcut (or a clever imposter).Predominantly blue it shows a night scene with a moon and a path leading to a house in the hills.

Rare is this wrought-work

Carl Tomlinson reviews Earth House by Matthew Hollis (Bloodaxe, 2023)
Big white text on a black background. Parts of the words "The" and "Big" . Its striking if you like that monochrome block capitals kind of thing.

Meanwhile in Camelot

Helena Nelson reviews The Big Calls by Glyn Maxwell (Live Canon, 2023)
Section of the book cover. What looks like rows of small squareish woodblock shapes in pinky red on a yellow background.

Inside fire what you get is fire

Victoria Moul reviews Heritage Aesthetics by Anthony Anaxagorou (Granta, 2022)
illustration showing a woman with blue skin covered in images, light blue leaves intertwine with pink flowers, a yellow sun on each breast.

Finishing mummy’s pictures

Rachael Matthews reviews The Illustrated Woman by Helen Mort (Chatto & Windus, 2022)