Poésie de Confinement

by Chloe Gilholy, Cecilya Delvig (Translator)

La pandémie nous a changé la vie à tous. Elle nous a rendus pour la plupart plus forts, mais ça a aussi été fatiguant. Ce sentiment d'inquiétude à l'annonce de nouveaux variants et de nouveaux confinements reste persistant. Des nouveaux hobbies nous sont venus et nous avons essayé au mieux de nous occuper durant les périodes d'isolation.

111 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2022

About the author

I am a writer from Oxfordshire. I am here as both a writer and a reader.

Reviews

[Elle Sie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had previously read Chloe Gilholy's novel, Game of Mass Destruction, and was intrigued when I saw that she wrote poetry too, so decided to try this collection. This book deals with some dark themes, but does so in a way that gives the reader a hint of an optimistic outcome and there is much humour weaved into the poems. There is an homage to Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 'Ode to Summer Love' and 'Summer Monster, which are related in theme, providing a good juxtaposition; the first is styled in a light tone and is about love whereas the second deals with the darker side of a relationship, giving a Jekyll and Hyde sense. 'Joe & Ivy' had some of the best lines in the collection as follows: A Swedish babe barely thirty// Oblivious to her own bliss// Vomiting her natural beauty// An obsession with anorexic art. In other poems, such as a favourite of mine, 'Ship of Fools', Gilholy shows the death of idealistic dreams, when a captain is killed, a housewife commits murder and witnesses her lover drowning before a mermaid. There is reference to Japanese pop culture in many of the poems too: the haikubes haiku game and a video game as well as some Japanese phrases interspersed, giving the collection an international flavour. Other poems are subtly profound: in 'Fish' the last two lines talk of how, after fish are caught, killed and smoked as food, they travel further to their culinary destination than they ever did in a vast ocean while they were alive. The majority of the poems deal with fleeting observations which makes sense considering it's a lockdown collection. Food is a recurring theme, mainly related to health, which again fits the idea of preoccupation that many people had during lockdown of getting fit or worrying about death: in 'cake' there are fears about sugar and fat and in 'apple' the poem explores the proverb of the fruit, relating it to drinking cider, another lockdown pastime for many. In 'first to the bar' there's a reflection on heavy drinking and a "Celtic soul" succumbing to having another round, which puts me in mind of the Clancy Brother's song 'Whiskey you're the Devil'. Alcohol is a recurring theme in the later half of the collection, and a sense of nostalgia of past holidays, all tying in with reflection and regrets that people may have had during the pandemic. There is a wistful sense in 'What people think of writers' that deals with misconceptions about how much people think they earn and how, a low bank balance and dreams of travel can incite tears. Overall, this is a deep and thought-provoking collection which deals with topics in a humourous and imaginative way.

[Riccardo Mainetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un'altra strepitosa raccolta di poesie firmata da Chloe Gilholy