kailinlee's review against another edition
4.0
Feeling gently tackled by painful, lost beauty, like when you can’t tell what kind of tears are on your cheeks. I could read Mort for a lifetime.
h2oetry's review
4.0
Surfaces and borders are the arena of interaction. Helen Mort’s collection of poems covers various types of conflicts and awakenings.
Whether it’s human to human, avenues or streets, life and/or death, land and rivers, the friction sets in motion meaning and feeling, whether negative or positive.
Striking miners struck by police officers. The battle between the differently named, or the named and the unnamed. As the preface states, “at the site of conflict, a moment of reconciliation can be born.”
“I stand at the junction,
watch the traffic lights
change amber to red.
Think of them,
there at midnight,
changing for nobody.”
Whether it’s human to human, avenues or streets, life and/or death, land and rivers, the friction sets in motion meaning and feeling, whether negative or positive.
“what she sees she cannot tell,
but what she knows of distances,
and doesn’t say, I know as well.”
Striking miners struck by police officers. The battle between the differently named, or the named and the unnamed. As the preface states, “at the site of conflict, a moment of reconciliation can be born.”
“Come back: we’ll take the slim, once-wanted moon,
unfashionable blackboard sky. No-one will miss
the world tonight. Let’s have the lot.”
behindthecritic's review
4.0
Really enjoyed this collection. Loved how familiar this poetry collection felt as a lot of poems are about Sheffield and Grasmere/surrounding areas - which are places I know quite well.
'Fagan's' is definitely my favourite poem in the collection.
'Fagan's' is definitely my favourite poem in the collection.
gilljames's review
4.0
Helen Mort creates a wonderful atmosphere in the poems in this collection. Great to read while we're in lockdown. Se took me back to some places I know and introduced me to others that I've not yet visited.
cooksbooks's review
5.0
I expected this to be more focused on the miner's strike than it was, especially from the blurb. What there was on this topic was amazing and I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed the other themes explored.
Common names was a gorgeous poem but the ones that had the biggest impact on me werepit closure as a tarintino short, scab and thinspiration.
Common names was a gorgeous poem but the ones that had the biggest impact on me werepit closure as a tarintino short, scab and thinspiration.
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