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Apology for Absence by Julia Darling.
Arc Publications, Nanholme Mill, Shaw Wood Road, Todmorden, Lancs 0L14 6DA £6.95.


With the death of Julia Darling at the age of 48, recently announced in the press, sadly, Apology for Absence becomes a poignant title for this exceptional collection..  She clearly knew she was dying and some of the poems have a valedictory air but, as the blurb observes, the poems are 'about the fragile beauty of what we have, about dying, but above all about living'. Her work is rich in sensuous imagery: 'I love the smell of my daughters reading / as they turn the pages, pushing hair behind ears, / especially in this early Summer, with its fat leaves / new and surprised, the trees full of juice / and so many dandelions, so much yellow...' (from My Daughters Reading in May).  The style is natural and often staccato. Many poems show domestic scenes with dislocating images and odd juxtapositions, which give them their individual vision and wit as well as drawing the reader into a newly observed world, which is the hallmark of real art. These include Probably Sunday where 'One  daughter is sleeping, her face unbuttoned / she's dreaming of wardrobes, of sharp gold shoes.// Downstairs her mother writes her will / and studies investments, orders the past...' concluding '...it's probably Sunday. / We are an English family in an endless terrace.' Another example is 'the hawthorn outside is shocked with blossom / as we eat a large breakfast...' from Satisfactory.

   For me the outstanding poem is Getting There - an allegory utilising a  bus journey, where the bus '...lurched out of the ordinary timetable, / faced steep lanes, and terrible bends / that no regular bus could foresee...' and 'My companions had loud conversations / and frail bodies....the bus was filled with leftover people / from other bus routes, other destinations...' She concludes 'I felt that I had seen the universe, / its heights and depressions. I was bruised, / dented with corners, but when I stepped down / the earth beneath my feet felt older, stronger.'