Barbara Ellis
Reviews
The Blackbird Inspector - Pamela Coren
Laurel Books, 282 The Common, Holt, Wiltshire SN14 6QA £7.99
In this quirky and original collection, Coren’s work bristles with traps for the unwary. Her subject matter ranges far and wide; from the humorous opening poem through Celtic mythology to a deliciously sensuous poem about onions! Although very much centred in the ‘now’ she writes as if language were in the process of discovery, an act in which we can all share, through her work: We are an earthquake,/ a soul-ache, a tide in the bed-rock ('The Hurdy Gurdy Makes its Pitch'). Substances, sounds, abstractions such as sleep and old age, all become part of the raw material of Coren’s work, waiting to be fashioned into other forms and fancies. There is also a great deal of blood spilt between the lines. A heady mixture, but rooted firmly in her past. You see/ how what’s written in the lichen/ weathers us,/ salmon leaping in air,/ runes/ cleaner than we can dream/ of the world we hide our password in,... ('Those Pictish, Celtic things'). Now Coren has made it clear what 'The Blackbird Inpector' is seeking: ...that final note,/ the unsolved sudden rise...I’ll nail that yet...And among these often very funny but always thought provoking poems, the reader is confident she will.
Page(s) 56
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