The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 4
To get us into the festival spirit here at Inpress we've been looking back at some of our favourite books from 2015. It's...
April’s top picks feature fantastic poetry that combine the everyday and the extraordinary.
Rebecca's Choice: Life Class by Jo Reed
Jo Reed’s second collection offers readers more of her trademark mix of memory, myth and magic; a window to a unique world where the unvarnished reality of OAP shopping trips (‘Finding the deepest trolleys, we fill our day’) sits alongside breath taking flights of imagination (‘a turtle sings, fathoms deep, a boy held safe upon her back.’) The magic of Life Class is found in the single consciousness that connects the poems; be they set in the world of 1960s Soho, on the edge of an estuary, or on a Greek island. Buy it here.
Yen-Yen's Choice: Kith by Jo Bell
Delighting in the belting, beautiful turn-of-phrase, Jo Bell's poems are lyrical and joyous, but always precise and clear as birdsong. They take us the long way home, plot histories along the route of backwaters, and are occasionally diverted for a roll in the hay; hearts are broken and boats are dry-docked. There will be tears, but there will also be love, safe harbours, and the company of wise and faithful kith. Buy it here.