NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
GERARD ROCHFORD: THE HOLY FAMILY AND OTHER POEMS
Koo Press
ISBN 0 9542076 5 3
£3.50
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This page last updated: 11th December 2007. 		GERARD ROCHFORD: THE HOLY FAMILY AND OTHER POEMS

This is #11 in the Koo Press Chapbook Series — a nicely produced A5, stapled booklet of verse on the subject of Christian faith. The starting point is the birth of Christ and the first piece is called MARY FALLS PREGNANT:

	Today I will walk through the village,
	be blatant in the market, haggle,
	buy swaddling of best linen,
	food for three, a teething horn;
	perhaps a song-bird in a wooden cage
	to sing at my window as I work and wait.
The pages of verse continue in this vein, with even a piece on the Turin Shroud. My favourite is called ELEMENT:
	Iracus the lark,
	and the wren Orpheus,
	sing their own dominions.

	As we do;
	revealed by the style of our rejoicing
	and our conspicuous silences.
This piece shows the pathos and the ear for sound. Gerard Rochford is a founder member of DEAD GOOD POETS and co-editor of STORM. This little booklet is a dedication covering the main events of the New Testament.

reviewer: Doreen King.