The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Book Reviews

Three pieces of fruit, made out of wood on a pale background. Pretty sure one is a pear and more than 80% sure that another represents an apple. The last could well be a beef tomato, then again a teeny pumpkin fits too.

You are less separate than you imagine

Charlotte Gann reviews The Hopeful Hat by Carole Satyamurti (Bloodaxe, 2023)
Pixelated image with a black background and a thick rainbow border on the left hand side and top. Small square blocks of colour seem to explode into the centre from the top left hand corner.

Can’t you see the poetry in throwing a fire extinguisher through the window of the Ritz?

Karen Smith reviews Improvised Explosive Device by Arji Manuelpillai (Penned in the Margins, 2022)
Monochrome photograph showing the silhouette of a woman standing on a small rock in the sea.

First-class business to transact

Isabelle Thompson reviews Tabula Rasa: Poetry by Women (Linen Press, 2023)
Graphic with a white background showing various leaf like shapes, predominantly blue and black with the occasional green and orange . They could be seaweed. Who knows.

Crash the force shield of this screen

Emma Simon reviews The Kingdom by Jane Draycott (Carcanet, 2022)
Part of a graphic showing the top of a wooden noticeboard such as one would seen a church. The top has a small flower cutout.

Of difference, and of faith and its loss

Maggie Mackay reviews Hymnal by Julia Bell (Parthian, 2023)
A close up showing two torn pieces of pink paper with slightly burnt edges.

Snowfall mixes with burning ash

Tim Murphy reviews To An Occupier Burning Holes by Ken Evans (Salt, 2022)
A close up black and white picture of a fallen wine glass, and dark liquid is splashing out.

Blown like glass into brittle intricacies

Hilary Menos reviews Slide by Mark Pajak (Cape, 2022)
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)
Delicate watercolour showing thin branches with red flowers and two small birds flying nearby.

There are some things that can’t be washed away

Tim Murphy reviews Sing Me Down from the Dark by Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana (Salt, 2022)
Black and white image showing what looks like abstracted, shrouded figures.

One Woman Revolution

Chris Edgoose reviews White/Other by Fran Lock
Avid alt text readers will notice that sometimes I am at a loss to pull meaning from a bewildering array of abstract book covers, this one is more figurative in nature, though not entirely clear. It appears to be painting of a crystal fruit bowl with what looks like an explosion of silhouetted grapes ... or cherries ... fruit anyway ... or maybe berries.

More life!

Stephen Payne reviews Scenes from Life on Earth by Kathryn Simmonds (Salt, 2022)
Section of a book cover. It's mostly black, with silver grey lines that could be woodcuts. It shows in roughly square boxes, a tree, a tower, a bridge, some leaves and a curly vertical squiggle. Nope, I don't know either.

An outstretched imitation of the original

Jeremy Wikeley reviews bandit country by James Conor Patterson (Picador, 2022)