Reviews
Belief in something better by Tony Turner.
Cherrycroft Press, Popes Lane, Cookham Dean, Berks SL6 9NY. £5.99.
Tony Turner's recurring theme in Belief in something better is renewal. This is illustrated in a domestic metaphor: 'Something stirs fiercely inside her. / suppressing it, he knows, leads to / moody silences or angry words...' while '...All he wants is / to know that it works, can be used, / that he can get on with life again.' She is happy '...Now she can immerse herself / in new curtains, new carpets, new furniture, / visits to shops, the agony of choice, / the delights of measuring, ordering, buying, / renewing, renewing.' (from Primeval). Depth of feeling and studies of relationships are contained in the compact simplicity of style. The convenient device of projection of evil onto others and also, by implication, belief systems, is encapsulated in the search for 'the enemy' in Heisenburg Revisited: 'We have this enemy, hiding / like an electron in an atom. / We must find him / before he kills us...' to 'so we will seek / more information, / form new theories / on his whereabouts. // Then we will find him.' Another aspect of this subject is in Voices dealing with the seductive promise of life after death by people with an agenda: 'If you believe us, then our enemies / should truly tremble'. He also examines the beauty of stained glass, its fragility, and feared fracture causing him to muse: '...the waterfall of consequences / cascading down in snapshots / of frozen time...' (from Stained Glass). There are character studies, some movingly personal and others with social and historical awareness, such as The Prague Lady and her experiences of successes' 'freedoms.' This poetry is beautifully constructed. Because the subject matter is so absorbing and observations apt and unexpected, it is easy not to notice the beauty of imagery and vividness of sense impressions. Another collection I'd like to see more widely available.
Page(s) 42
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The