NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

A fine collection of some 35 poems exhibiting the usual high standard we have come to expect from Katabasis. There is a wide range of subject matter, from TU-FU IN TUFNELL PARK to SOMEBODY'S GOT TO MAKE THE MEALS [who did prepare the food that was on the table for the Last Supper, anyway?], THE MOON'S SONG, HERMES and HERBS. A deceptive straightforwardness in some of the poems hides a truly deep awareness, with imagery which is always tight with true poetic insight and which seems to resonate through mythological reference etc., in the realms of the collective unconscious. With a truly feminine sensibility and a realism which covers our everyday experience, from plants to growing old, this poetry seems to me to be truly enriching:

	RAVENS

	There is commotion
	winging in
	like life spans of Gondor,
	dark caverns issuing smoke.
	But they are glossy.
	Each feather smooth
	as long, black lakes.
	When they see me they scatter
	to far off aspens
	then circle back squarking in flight.
	Dark angels over the roof
	whose wingspan
	covers the four corners of vision
	dream-laden from single eyed Odin.
	Loud mouthed Commanders
	ordered to where?