NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 DILYS WOOD: WOMEN COME TO A DEATH 10 St Martin's Close, London, NW1 0HR, UK ISBN 0 904862 28 9 £6.95 email Katabasis visit the website of Katabasis        Web design by  This page last updated: 11th December 2007. |
DILYS WOOD: WOMEN COME TO A DEATH | |
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This is a powerful book dealing with strong emotions in a moving and original way. There are three sections and the two most successful deal with the death of a mine safety officer and that of the poet's mother by cancer. In DEATH OF A SAFETY OFFICER we learn about it by means of a dialogue between the dying man and a chorus of women. The man, Eddie, provides us with his personal thoughts and fears about dying; the chorus describes his life and death. Eddie acknowledges the chorus as part of women's ability to become part of life's rites of passage in a way that men can't or won't — Women come to a death — not men if they can help it — come but keep their distance.The result is a dramatic and sensitive poem. The middle section is the least successful and contains shorter pieces mostly about London. The third section is a very personal sequence of poems. WOOD is honest about her feelings and does not spare us not only the details of her mother's death but the ambiguity of her own feelings about it. At the same time she reminds us all of the inevitability of death. This is a book well worth buying. | ||
| reviewer: Polly Bird. |