My latest review published in Cordite Poetry Review –
Of the two chapbooks under review, Lucy Holt’s exquisitely crafted poetry in Stories of Bird pecks at single moments, both from an intimate as well as a bird’s-eye view. Her use of symbolism is focused and sensory. Hers are deep and personal poems, with some empathetic politics, that draw the reader in. Alison Croggon’s chapbook Ash, on the other hand, speaks with a more despairing voice. Hers is an exploration of mood. Her poems flow together through pain and awareness. They are more all-embracing than Holt’s, connecting history and broad spatiality to the personal; but fear, emptiness, darkness and blood are their prevailing themes.
