Whether focusing in on catching fish off a pier, learning to speak Bird at night school, riding towards inspiration on horseback or thinking about manatees, the poems in Claire Dyer’s second collection offer a slantwise look at some of the experiences, both real and imagined, that can shape our lives.
Influenced by Elizabeth Bishop and the Morpho butterfly, the pieces in Interference Effects shift and alter depending on the reader’s viewing angle. Infused by the colour blue, they compare a farmer harvesting to a recipe for Victoria sponge; show children learning to swim as a boy is buried at sea; tell of a heart left at a checkout as a curator’s assistant gives hers in for safekeeping.
These pairings search for definition and meaning whilst acknowledging the beauty and strength in never actually being able to capture either.