Welcome back to The Book Bag. I hope you’ve had a poetic week.
The week started wonderfully as I was in the audience for the launch of Hatchery by Elizabeth Osmond. Such a variety of voices sharing their work and support to Elizabeth. It was excellent.
I shared Part 3 of Rachel Turney’s Poetic Voice feature. I feel genuinely honoured to have after poems based on my work. Read the feature in full here.
The allotment is coming in leaps and bounds and next month we’ll be harvesting the garlic and maybe some new potatoes. The hot weather has been a massive help too although I did catch a bit too much and ended up having a siesta.
At work it’s getting increasingly busy day by day as the Summer series ramps up. I am having some holidays soon, so I need to prepare ahead of time. I did win a prize hamper of international snacks this week which I’m very grateful for.
On top of that I’ve been reading;
The Way The Water Held Me
- Poet: Catherine Redford
- Press: The Emma Press
As soon as I began reading The Way The Water Held Me for my first read through, I was captivated and didn’t put it down except for wiping the tears from my face to protect the pages. Catherine Redford gives everything in this book.
The poems ‘With Sympathy’, ‘Circles’ and ‘Her Last Day’ highlight Catherine’s superpower of resilience. These are only a few of the poems that touch on Catherine’s grief, and I felt deeply emotional when reading them. It would be a disservice to try and quantify how profoundly struck I was with this collection.
The poetry in the collection is vivid and rich in language and metaphor. The pieces including ‘Between women just grown up’ (one of my favourites) and ‘Funeral’ transport and immerse the reader from the page to scene. This is also the case with ‘Lost In The Woods’ which is another of my favourites. ‘On Naming The Stars’ is another exemplary piece that I should mention (I could mention every poem in the book really) that makes readers take notice and reflect.
Catherine has an interest in Mary Shelley and in the book she acts as a foil for some tremendously touching pieces. The poems ‘Mary Shelley and I are shipwrecked’ and ‘Mary Shelley dreams she’s the last woman’ are so heartfelt, respectful and refreshing.
Forms and styles are catered for throughout the collection which maintains the sense of originality. We as readers have ekphrastic poetry in ‘After Emily’, found poetry in ‘Mary Shelley writes to tell me that her husband drowned’ has and clever use of spacing in ‘Widows Weeds’ (another of my favourites). The prescriptive list piece ‘Postscript: I return to the river one year after her death’ is incredibly written.
This collection is a masterpiece and will appeal to poetics who like reading emotionally powerful poetry. The fans of styles and forms will love the variety in the book. This is one of my favourite collections I’ve read. It is a stunning and brave book, and everyone should have a copy.
To learn more about Catherine Redford, click here.
To buy The Way The Water Held Me from The Emma Press, click here.
Favourite Poem:
I’ve already discussed the pieces ‘Between women just grown up’, ‘Lost In The Woods’ and Widows Weeds’, I will add another twelve but I could say the whole book. ‘Her Worldly Goods’, ‘Night Music’, ‘Starting Again’, ‘Moon Geese’, ‘Obituary’, ‘Good Friday’, ‘I visit a medieval herb garden in an attempt to rebalance my humours’, ‘Radiotherapy’, ‘Between women, very old’, ‘Return’, ‘Waves’ and ‘Performance’.
If you’ve made it to the playlist, these are the songs I landed on this week…
ABBA – Dancing Queen
Seal – Kiss From A Rose
Queen – You’re My Best Friend
Massive Attack – Teardrop
Sonny Rollins – Without A Song
Fatboy Slim – Praise You
James – She’s A Star
Eva Cassidy – Over The Rainbow
Aerosmith – I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
White Town – Your Woman
Joanna Newsom – Sapokanikan
Art Pepper – Patricia
Before I Go…
If you’d like to take part at the next Book Bag Open Mic Session, tickets can be purchased here. Audience tickets are also available and free.
One More Thing…
If you’re in the Kingston area on 10th of July why not head to a poetry night hosted by Adam Elms and Book Bag alumni Chris Campbell. Tickets here.
And Another…
You have until Tuesday to submit to Full House Literary. Send your best work but make sure to read the guidelines.
And Finally…
Paul Brookes over at The Starbeck Orion is accepting poetry and artwork for The Summer Feast edition. Details here.
Next Week’s Read
- Title: Drawn
- Poet: Peter Hughes
Take it easy and stay poetic, I’ll catch you next week.
Paul
Paul Writes Poems 