JOAN JOHNSTON: ORANGE FOR THE SUN Dogeater PO Box 990 Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 2US UK ISBN 0 9546515 2 9 £5.95 Web design by This page last updated: 1st September 2009. |
JOAN JOHNSTON: ORANGE FOR THE SUN | |
This 46-page book contains poems that span the decades of a western life. THE GIRL CAUGHT sets the period: The day they caught me being Cilla Black I was back-combed and miming into my hairbrush, standing on a chair, performing into the mirrorThis book is whisked above the plethora of coffee-table reads by the clear and persistent charm of the writer. The poems are light. Johnston's approach gives a kind of openness and honesty: On your old garden fence the starling repeats the chorus notes of Come on Eileen and it nearly kills me; stops me in my tracks through the overgrown grass, the red petals from the B&Q rose bush you bought reduced that first Bank Holiday after he died. You chose itThe above is from CATCHY. Each poem is an observation of an aspect of life. For instance I give TREASURE in full: You may as well have left me mewling in a phone box or on the hospital steps with your wedding photo cutting-the-cake, these flowered tea sets wrapped in newspaper. Mammy's Treasure. Daddy's Pigeon Pie.Joan Johnston is preoccupied with the passage of time — the ephemeral aspects of life. Her poetry paints small pictures of existence. | ||
reviewer: Doreen King. |