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Spinning
This book is collection of poetry
121 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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August 7, 2013
"Spinning" is the most appropriate title for this collection of poetry, because of the effect it will have on you.
What should you expect of a collection if poetry from an academic, whose specialism is communications and media, whose artistic talent extends well beyond the written word and into many forms of modern media, like video, in which she has exhibited around the world and, for completeness, back into traditional water colour painting. You couldn't be blamed for thinking that Berry is a 'Jack of all trades and master of none'. Well, I have to tell you that you'd be wrong. The explanation for why, I suggest, is that her talent for creating imaginative impressions of life is eminently transferable.
In consequence of this, I found her collection, "Spinning" quite remarkable. As an academic, she has clearly demonstrated, in innovative projects like 'Pinning Poetry to Place', that she is capable of researching new fields of endeavour, pushing the boundaries, delving deeply into life's mysteries and, in the process, clearly demonstrating what part the creative imagination has to play in all of this.
From the opening five part, scene setting, title ‘track’ poem, “Spinning”, in which she (literally and metaphorically) weaves a remarkable, illuminating story, which is simply magical, she takes us on a journey through her poetry. This is a journey that moves us from the sometimes deep and enigmatic, like “Black Mirror”, "Rattles" and "Drishti", through stories of mysterious yet familiar places in “Quarter Acre Block”, then into what I can only describe as a picture of sound, in “Back Yard”, to the simply mysterious “A Murder Perhaps?”. Placing a poem that depicts the worst of war in “Dresden”, alongside a scene of feline domesticity in “Brave Loulou” seems perverse, but it somehow works, amazingly, reminding us of the fact that life goes on and keeps us on our toes!
The brevity and apparent simplicity of most of Berry’s poems bely the complexity of their stories and the depth of her sometimes exquisite observations of life. I found poems like the poignant and very observant “Magnolia Air”, in which she writes “...a promise invades my nose I sneeze thinking of summer.” both moving and enjoyable. As with many of her poems, amidst the text, which can be engrossing, enchanting or enthralling, or all three, I would find myself surprised by a turn of phrase, which caught my breath, or a change of direction. The very meaningful “Twitter Hugs” and “One Forty Characters”, in which she reveals micro-poetry “...constrained but uncontained...”, she constantly surprises with her ability to turn a poem on its head with a sudden perspective that makes you think. Their brevity carries so much more poetic value.
For those that aren’t so brief, it is also clear that there is a depth of personally sourced material that she has drawn on. “Exile” tells a very real and moving story of hardship under tyranny, as does the war story of “Dresden”. Yet, from these ‘heavy’ poems, at a stroke, you are switched to an ephemeral observation of what sunlight does to ordinary domestic objects in “light instances on a table”.
There is also clear prosodic value too. In her “morning Harmony” she plays with form, after Baudelaire’s “Harmonie du Soir”, in which you find the sublime line ”Bird songs fill the silence in the morning air, a sanguine jive of pretty opportunities.” Magnificent! In “Between the Lines”, she invitingly coaxes us to fill in the gaps and so it goes on.
This review can only hint at the diversity and quality this collection of poetry has to offer and I could eulogise about it all day. If I were to tell you it was an anthology of poetry by many different poets, with different personalities, you could be forgiven for believing me, but it isn’t. It is the work of one poet, which, and whom, I unreservedly recommend to you.
What should you expect of a collection if poetry from an academic, whose specialism is communications and media, whose artistic talent extends well beyond the written word and into many forms of modern media, like video, in which she has exhibited around the world and, for completeness, back into traditional water colour painting. You couldn't be blamed for thinking that Berry is a 'Jack of all trades and master of none'. Well, I have to tell you that you'd be wrong. The explanation for why, I suggest, is that her talent for creating imaginative impressions of life is eminently transferable.
In consequence of this, I found her collection, "Spinning" quite remarkable. As an academic, she has clearly demonstrated, in innovative projects like 'Pinning Poetry to Place', that she is capable of researching new fields of endeavour, pushing the boundaries, delving deeply into life's mysteries and, in the process, clearly demonstrating what part the creative imagination has to play in all of this.
From the opening five part, scene setting, title ‘track’ poem, “Spinning”, in which she (literally and metaphorically) weaves a remarkable, illuminating story, which is simply magical, she takes us on a journey through her poetry. This is a journey that moves us from the sometimes deep and enigmatic, like “Black Mirror”, "Rattles" and "Drishti", through stories of mysterious yet familiar places in “Quarter Acre Block”, then into what I can only describe as a picture of sound, in “Back Yard”, to the simply mysterious “A Murder Perhaps?”. Placing a poem that depicts the worst of war in “Dresden”, alongside a scene of feline domesticity in “Brave Loulou” seems perverse, but it somehow works, amazingly, reminding us of the fact that life goes on and keeps us on our toes!
The brevity and apparent simplicity of most of Berry’s poems bely the complexity of their stories and the depth of her sometimes exquisite observations of life. I found poems like the poignant and very observant “Magnolia Air”, in which she writes “...a promise invades my nose I sneeze thinking of summer.” both moving and enjoyable. As with many of her poems, amidst the text, which can be engrossing, enchanting or enthralling, or all three, I would find myself surprised by a turn of phrase, which caught my breath, or a change of direction. The very meaningful “Twitter Hugs” and “One Forty Characters”, in which she reveals micro-poetry “...constrained but uncontained...”, she constantly surprises with her ability to turn a poem on its head with a sudden perspective that makes you think. Their brevity carries so much more poetic value.
For those that aren’t so brief, it is also clear that there is a depth of personally sourced material that she has drawn on. “Exile” tells a very real and moving story of hardship under tyranny, as does the war story of “Dresden”. Yet, from these ‘heavy’ poems, at a stroke, you are switched to an ephemeral observation of what sunlight does to ordinary domestic objects in “light instances on a table”.
There is also clear prosodic value too. In her “morning Harmony” she plays with form, after Baudelaire’s “Harmonie du Soir”, in which you find the sublime line ”Bird songs fill the silence in the morning air, a sanguine jive of pretty opportunities.” Magnificent! In “Between the Lines”, she invitingly coaxes us to fill in the gaps and so it goes on.
This review can only hint at the diversity and quality this collection of poetry has to offer and I could eulogise about it all day. If I were to tell you it was an anthology of poetry by many different poets, with different personalities, you could be forgiven for believing me, but it isn’t. It is the work of one poet, which, and whom, I unreservedly recommend to you.
Displaying 1 of 1 review