NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

The selected bibliography lists more than forty pamphlets of poetry. This, however, is a more substantial book of work. Influenced obviously by Basil Bunting, with whom he is sometimes compared, Simms is more prolific than his mentor. Close observation coupled with a precision in the use of words combine to create poems full of life that flows as sleekily as the subject:

	Decoy backswamp willowgarth jetty
	duckweed decked dimple spread stippled to ripples
	when a prime carnivore turns aside to reach elderberries
	this un's              leading           fur freedom

	my otter derived from a toy destroyer
	cut from solid        by Uncle Bill long since lost superstructures
	(struck on with glue water and rough usage loosened
	we drilled her side as for oars and stuck dowels in rows
	each to carry its line and beetle-baited hook
	different lengths — some just pricked fish
	(caught a crab) some caught fish the real otter took!

	Yet he is not wet yet, never is (it)
	and how far before me has he run it
	and why? To surprise a water vole?
	No riverside birds at this season
	save the dipper (and the mighty heron).
	Wrens and dunnocks, though, they come
	and others attracted by the debris, scrum

The marten halts short of where the otter had, some weeks before, when he also got my scent; a function of the breeze moving riverside trees a little, a breeze noticeable to me only along the river.

	Attentive to pigeons, or this winter's partridges?
	for blood-pumps on all the ground his eye sees
	are as prey to him as those are in his trees
	and he is not standing still but he is planning
	his dash and his kiss-at-the-neck, his prey-play
	which will choke no-less-than the leopard's caress.

	weak as the sound is, it's
	squeaking of sucking kits
	sits on the slight frost still
	deeper than rats behind wainscot
	nearer than night stands itself:
	a calm on it. No harm to them
	of the morning to come, if God will
	forester; special apical-meristem
	fills new rare life at her tits.

Wildlife enthusiasts should enjoy the tales and descriptions in this book and it might even give them a taste for strongly crafted wordwise poetry. At the same time, poetry-lovers might find in this book an insight into the fascinating world of these creatures. It is a book ready to delight both sets of readers.

As a birdwatcher I was immediately drawn to this book. GYRFALCON POEMS is a collection of poetry, illustrations and short essays based on Simm's close observations of gyrfalcons, the largest of the falcons, over half a century. This poetry is full of the wildness of the birds and of their chosen exposed habitats in Northern countries. Simms is not always a straightforward poet but he is never wilfully difficult and his words are written with such a love of language that they are worth reading over and over. His descriptions are both precise but playful as in PAIR GYR NEAR NEST:

	Ravel, unravel, avalanche their
	tumble — only the edge is dread

	stiff wings stiff winds' fulmars cannot soar
	storm silence nudges us, rumbles within —roar
	definite defence is rumour, violence's various colour
	hues different, views not fewer, blues' edge temper
	out over the Sound

	broader than the buzzard and longer, malevolence freed
	more than ravens', coarser than the peregrines'
	and yet grander

	Men who deliver shocks to what they call 'nature'
	unwittingly or wittingly ignore the real riches
	for their own gain, to their own loss, our spells