NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

By way of the opening poem A KUNG FU LULLABY (for Lucy) I could not see it other than a tag for an array of miscellaneous, very enticing poems exuding originality. Apart from this (probably my innate wish that contents should roughly mirror titles for a collection to have power as a collection), I appreciated the calibre of many individual poems. Kinsey uses her skills to make predicates do fantastic deeds on noun-objects: viz from A SMELL OF PETROL:

	I saw petrol turn a boy into a bomb

	A stand of tulips carouse the dew

	Seals watch the zodiac nosing through ice-floes

	. . . asleep in a moses basket,
	a gust of wind crowned you with lace knickers.

A lady of many lullabies and careers, Kinsey has worked breaking ponies, as a care assistant, a lecturer, a kung fu instructor and bus escort for Age Concern.

These poems have an impressive history of publications and prizes. Obviously interested in rites of the seasons, her CELEBRATING SOLSTICE AT KILPECK CASTLE widens the tendency to dwell on more parochial subjects:

	On the rampart, huddled against
	the crumbling tower, we light tilted candles.
	Our palms play roaring flame as
	a kestrel, soaring from churchyard yews,
	lifts the horizon —
 
	wet mistletoe winks at the sun.