The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Pamphlet Reviews

Composite image made from two book covers showing (on the left) an abstract shoreline with sky and (on the right) an abstract grey background with white squiggles and brown leaflike squiggles. I know, so many abstract images! It seems to be a poetry thing, the abstract image. Sometimes you get a nice picture of a friendly dog, or a cow. But mostly it's an abstract thing.

More sea than land, more sky than earth

Jane Routh reviews After Clare by William Thompson (New Walk 2022) and A Separate Appointment by Rebecca Farmer (New Walk, 2022)
Textured image in charcoal and grey. It's probably tea.

Language walking across borders

D.A. Prince reviews Colours & Tea (Human) by Tomi Adegbayibi (Muscaliet Press, 2022)
A photograph showing golden wheat-like grass with a textured blue background.

A soft labyrinth of signals

Hilary Menos reviews The Grass Boat by Imogen Forster (Mariscat, 2021)
A black and white woodcut print. It is abstract in nature, but seems to show glasses, one upturned with a spider in it.

Put me in a drum and bang me

Tim Murphy reviews The Barman by Helen Bowell (Bad Betty Press, 2022)
Light green textured paper background with two off-centre white dots.

And far away a writer drawing a breath

Regina Weinert reviews Uneasy Pieces by Nancy Campbell (Guillemot Press 2022)
Black and white print showing a black background with white horizontal stripes. A circle of this is cut out and slid down showing a white background.

The space between bars

Nell Prince reviews Angola, America by Sammy Weaver (Seren, 2022)
Abstract painting with splashes of colour. Shades of blue and purple on a cream background, some splashy shapes, some more kind of smudgy. All looks a bit cataclysmic.

A spill of yew

Rory Waterman reviews Apostasy by John Burnside (Dare-Gale Press, 2022)
Some white text on a bright blue background, the text is a small part of the words "Notes from the North".

Bullets, grenade-shards, mortar casings and barricades

Tim Murphy reviews Notes from the North by Suji Kwock Kim (Smith|Doorstop, 2022)
A poster-style graphic that shows four sheep heads each on a different coloured background. It's like Andy Warhol's Marilyn paintings, but with sheep.

SHEEP SHEEP SHEEP SHEEP FOX SHEEP SHEEP SHEEP

Emma Simon reviews What the sheep taught me by Mary Mulholland (Live Canon, 2022)
Black and white detail from a woodcut showing skeletons marching and clambering, some playing horns.

Limited only by things unseen

Richie McCaffery reviews Hex and Other Poems by Shane McCrae (Bad Betty, 2022)
A red background has a repeating pattern on it, the pattern comprises two open hands with stigmata, a syringe with a needle and some figs, halved and whole.

The wasp in the fig’s tissue, sharp as a slice of paper

Bruno Cooke reviews Stephen the Phlebotomist by Nadia Lines (Nine Pens, 2022)
Dark purple circles on a pale pink background. The circles look a bit like cells and are surrounded by dots and same shapes in swirling patterns.

The year I was lost in the core of a star

Hilary Menos reviews Ovarium by Joanna Ingham (Emma Press, 2022)