NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 CLARE E POTTER: SPILLING HISTORIES Cinnamon Press Ty Meiron Glan yr Afon Tanygrisiau Blaenau Ffestiniog Gwynedd LL41 3SU UK ISBN 0 9549433 7 6 £7.99 email Cinnamon Press visit the website of Cinnamon Press        Web design by  This page last updated: 10th December 2007. |
CLARE E POTTER: SPILLING HISTORIES | |
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An attractive front cover by Mike Fortune-Wood showing presumably a humanised or robotic symbol of personal history memories 'spilled out' as it were from a paddle-steamer provides anticipatory interest in 58 pages of poems in this 64-page perfect-bound booklet. The poetry is realistic and hard hitting with a variety of unusual and sometimes telling twists and imagery. Sometimes I wished that the lines proceeded in older traditional style, meaning less energy for a critic since the work needs some wrestling with in its modern style. This was partly due to it being a record of historic encounters. With other subject matter, this reservation probably would not apply. Subject matter can seem at odds with title, e.g. KATRINA I, KATRINA II are respectively subheaded THE NEW KITCHEN and NO FOOL LIKE AN OLD FOOL. The former poem starts We were never quite sure if Miss Karlene was a woman. She wore a muumuu, bright print, slip-on pumps and carried her Pomeranian puppy under layers of arm.Later a Mr.David is introduced. Relationships are unclear. The latter poem mentions a Mr.Tommy and Betsy, and the same lack of clarity applies. The book is full of exciting approaches and lines, free from philosophical waffle and subjective dreaming. | ||
| reviewer: Eric Ratcliffe. |