Dilys Wood
Review
Salt, Denise McSheehy
Salt, Denise McSheehy, 2008, The Poetry Can. £8 ISBN 978-0-9539234-3-4
Denise McSheehy’s Salt testifies to an exceptional awareness of the senses, poem after poem exploring particular tactile, taste and smell sensations and the minuter details of what she sees, “the
snowdrops / had a green core / flickery / like a little tongue”. In one section, Salt, she boldly dissects her many responses to this word, ranging from memories of the physical substance, “crumbly and resistant at the same time / the white piquant dust finding cracks in my skin” to the trace of salt in the smell of a jacket’s underarm, “salty and human”. She is a skilful and deep poet who well knows the power of poetry to suggest more than it says and who makes exciting connections for us. Some of the poems here about childhood memories are very effective in the way they apprehend the half-explained world in which a small child lives, “her room disturbing / where I cannot go – the yellow /pudding basin frightens me”. I suspect there is another stage to come in McSheehy’s work when she may find a somewhat stronger framework – a narrative, or a series of thematic links – which will bring her many scintillating perceptions into a larger whole. A poet to watch!
Page(s) 64-65
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