Short of Breath, poetry by Vivien Jones, is Dumfries and Galloway Life‘s book of the month.
The poems of landscape and nature beautifully capture small moments and fine details, and Vivien’s poems of people, particularly family, strike a chord. Down-to-earth reflections on childhood memories and motherhood have universal appeal: handcrafted Halloween costumes, sibling rivalry, an asthmatic child; while strangers are closely observed, the Two Fat Ladies in the hair salon, the racist youths in Glasgow “denim warriors, beer fumed / roaring, gobbing at their feet.”
Vivien’s poem ‘Cold Snap’, from Short of Breath, was Herald Scotland‘s poem of the day on 28 January 2015. You can read it here.
Go to the Short of Breath ‘s page for more information, and to buy it for the special discount price of £4 plus p&p until the end of February 2015 with the coupon clfeb15: Short of Breath
The Fire in Me Now – ‘fine and moving poems’
The Fire in Me Now by Michael Curtis is reviewed by David Clarke in Lunar Poetry:
The Fire in Me Now contains fine and moving poems which often capture significant moments of subjective experience. At his best, he is capable of developing a metaphor throughout the length of a poem in such a way that it accumulates meaning and emotional force in a truly compelling way. Take, for instance, ‘Butterfly Box’, which describes the treasured possession of a loved one as a metaphor for their ageing and death […] ‘Waiting’ […] starts from the mundane setting of a living room where the protagonists sit out an afternoon rain shower:
while the sky opens up again
and all around us always
inside the green, inside the blue
in the light, the dark in the dark
waits with unimaginable patience
to reclaim and reapportion
every part of every one of us
The Fire in Me Now is discounted by 50% until the end of February 2015, as part of our authors’ birthday bonanza. Go to the The Fire in Me Now‘s page for more information and to buy the book for just £4 plus p&p with the coupon clfeb15: The Fire in Me Now
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.