‘Poems to Learn by Heart’
By Ana Sampson
Published by Michael O’Mara Books
RRP £12.99 (hardback)
ISBN 9781782431459
'Paths of glory', 'Theirs not to reason why', 'When you are old and grey and full of sleep', 'A handful of dust', 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day' - these and many others are famous lines of poetry that often occur in everyday speech. But do you know the rest of the verse, or even the rest of the poem? An anthology to warm the coldest heart or charm the least romantic soul, this is a collection of poems (or in some cases, extracts) that are not only memorable, but lend themselves to being learned by heart.
This is the perfect book for anyone with even the vaguest interest in poetry, providing a wonderful opportunity to revisit those much-loved lines remembered from earlier days.
Highly recommended for readers of all ages
You can purchase the book here.
'Brand New Ancients'
By Kate Tempest
Published by Picador Poetry
RRP £9.99 (paperback)
ISBN 9781447257684
Reviewed by Lynsey Evans
Brand New Ancients won the 2013 Ted Hughes Award for Innovation in Poetry and has been published by Picador Poetry.
Rather than a poetry collection, with lots of individual poems, Brand
New Ancients is an epic poem, that was written to be read aloud – as a
spoken word piece. It’s really interesting to read something that is a
performance piece as the way you read it, isn’t always the way the poet
would deliver it, yet reading the piece makes you really appreciate the
story-telling element. (Check out this YouTube Clip: http://youtu.be/1a8iFSXCHLw!)
Brand New Ancients tells the story of two families and their lives that
Kate originally told over an orchestra’s score. The tales is set in the
city but has myths woven into it – gods are in the betting shops and
cafes! It cleverly shows how myths live on in modern society, in every
day acts whether that be bravery, love or violence. It’s dramatic,
thought-provoking, enchanting and quite marvellous.
Highly recommended for readers of all ages.
Visit Picador Poetry's website for further information or to buy the book.
‘As Far As I Know’
By Roger McGough
Published by Penguin Books
RRP £8.99 (paperback)
ISBN 9780241962275
Reviewed by Lynsey Evans
Roger McGough is one of the UK's best-known poets; there is an anticipation, an expectation even, of what his latest poetry collection ‘As Far As I Know’ would deliver ... I loved it, it certainly doesn’t disappoint!
The book kicks off with ‘Take Comfort’, a poem about looking on the bright side of things, finding a positive in a negative and appreciating your situation isn’t as bad as others - “not a letter from the hospital. The results devastating" and “a child’s arm thrust from the rubble” ... “you have a book in your hand. Take comfort from this”. This sets the theme, of looking at life, past and present, from a different viewpoint and other’s viewpoints too It’s nostalgic yet fresh at the same time. McGough’s poems often have a twist in them, cleverly used word play that seem dreamy at first before packing you with a punch of emotion.
The poems vary from youthful memories to modern events, such as ‘They Came Out Singing’, to getting older and those around you ageing to and how this affects life over time, such as ‘A Cold Calling’, which is such a simple but hugely effective poem, it is one of the poems that stood out to me from the whole collection. If you are also a fan of art, the Surrealists selection of poems are for you! There is a great selection of poems – some witty, some humorous, others thought-provoking, all in balance and all of which were immensely enjoyable.
Highly recommended for readers aged 14+
You can find out more about 'As Far As I Know' and order it here.
You can find out more about Roger McGough and his work at http://www.uktouring.org.uk/rogermcgough/
‘Lifting The Piano With One Hand’
By Gaia Holmes
Published by Comma Press
RRP £7.99 (paperback)
ISBN 9781905583270
Reviewed by Lynsey Evans
Gaia Holmes’ new collection is quite readable; I found a lot of it was
like reading a stream of consciousness, which elegantly flows and makes
the theme of loss and hope something special. I love the titles, such as
‘I Turned My Heart into a 2-Star B&B’ or ‘The Man Who Dripped
Digitalis’ – they are intriguing and conjure up great imagery. If you
like poems that adhere to a strict format, then this isn’t the
collection for you. Its free-flowing musings are enchanting and I urge
you to give it a read.
Highly recommended for readers aged 14+
You can find out more about Gaia Holmes and purchase her books here.
‘I Wandered As Lonely As A Cloud … and Other Poems You Half Remember From School’
By Ana Sampson
Published by Michael O’Mara Books
RRP £5.99 (paperback)
ISBN 9781782430124
This is a great collection for any poetry lover – and if you have a sentence from a school-days’ poem that you can’t remember for the life of you which poem it is quoted from, then this is the book you need!
From Chaucer, Shakespeare, Browning, Pope and Keats to Duffy, Larkin and Auden – this book spans the ages right up to modern day. It print the poems in full or a decent extract of, gives you a bit of info on the poet and the poet’s era, explains poetic forms and techniques as you read through making it much more than another collection of poems. It’s well-thought out and presented, and an enjoyable read.
Highly recommended for readers of all ages.
For further information on the author and book please visit Michael O'Mara Books' Website.
Published by Holland Park Press
RRP £8.99
ISBN 978-1-907320-35-4
To Sing Away the Darkest Days is the culmination of a five-year project which saw Norbert Hirschhorn source more than one thousand Yiddish songs.
Ruth Rubin, pioneer archivist of Yiddish folksong, wrote: ‘Yiddish folksongs are in a vernacular closest to the popular speech of the folk.’
For Norbert they helped him to rediscover and trace his own Jewish cultural history. However, some of the songs ‘spoke’ to him as a poet and begged for a new translation, or ‘re-imagining’ as he calls it, into English poems.
The resulting collection of poems tells the story of the emigrant, the Jew in the Diaspora. Norbert adds his unique view: he personalises the Diaspora, and at the same time brings a vanished culture back to life. The collection is funny and poignant and captures the Jewish experience, but the struggle and questioning of the poet add an extra dimension.
To Sing Away the Darkest Days is not only a wonderful collection of poems but also a necessary historical document.
The Quantum Rebbe
Nu, Einstein, with your ferret’s brain,
come sit at our Rebbe’s table and learn
a thing or two. So you made a rocket
to shoot at the stars? Which makes you
a wonder? Ha! Our Rebbe opens his
umbrella and he’s dancing on Mars.
You discovered relativity? Our Rebbe can fly
faster than light to greet the shabbos bride
from the previous night, returns looking younger.
Don’t beat the kettle about your Big Bang!
Who do you think was virtually there when G-d,
Master of the Universe, created time, heaven, earth!
And when the moshiyekh, the Anointed One,
comes to rebuild our Temple, our Rebbe will be
alongside – sanctifying, cantillating, praying.
© Norbert Hirschhorn 2013
About the Author
Norbert Hirschhorn is a physician specializing in international public health, commended in 1993 by President Bill Clinton as an ‘American Health Hero.’ He now lives in London and Beirut. His poems have been published in over three dozen journals, ten anthologies, four pamphlets, and three full collections: A Cracked River, Slow Dancer Press, London, 1999; Mourning in the Presence of a Corpse, Dar al-Jadeed, Beirut, 2008; Monastery of the Moon, Dar al-Jadeed, Beirut, 2012. His work has won a number of prizes in the US and UK.
You can find out more about Norbet and his work at Holland Park Press' website.
‘The Border’
By Miles Cain
Published by Valley Press
RRP £7.50 (paperback)
ISBN 9780956890443
One last thing. The heart’s just an engine,
a valve of sorts. That other stuff
(anger, jealousy, compassion etc) –
all of that is up to you. Ready now?
Deep breath. Sharp scratch. Here we go.
A woman borrows her husband tongue, a man spends years in a stalled car,
a teenage boy sees a crack divide his town ... In this impressive
debut, York-based poet Miles Cain guides readers through an increasingly
familiar dystopia of mind and city; a world observed with accuracy, wit
and heart. Insightful, surreal and surprising, The Border marks the
arrival of a formidable new voice in British poetry.
‘Pluto’
By Glyn Maxwell
Published by Picador Poetry, April 2013
RRP £9.99 (paperback)
ISBN 9781447231585
Pluto – the non-planet, the ex-planet – is the dominant celestial
influence in Glyn Maxwells new collection: Pluto is a book about change,
the before-and-after of love, the aftermath of loss: change of status
and station, home and place, of tense and pronoun. It also marks a
radical departure for one of our most celebrated English poets: his
formidable skills as a rhetorician and dramatist are suddenly directed
inwardly, to produce poems of brutal self-examination, raw elegy, and
strange songs of the kind those bruising encounters often leave us
singing to ourselves. In Pluto, Maxwell has set out something like a
metaphysic of the affair; the result is a lean and concentrated poetry
of great emotional power, and far and away his most directly personal
work to date.
