Tormentil

by Ian Humphreys

'I can't face the big stuff so I comb the moors for a tiny yellow flower' – so begins Tormentil, the second poetry collection by Ian Humphreys. Set largely in the starkly beautiful West Yorkshire moorlands, these poems creep and bloom across geographies and time. Isolated by grief in the first months of the pandemic, Humphreys goes in search of hope and blessings among the burnt heather, tumbledown mills and canal locks near his home in the Calder Valley. He unearths a landscape of wildflowers and wildlife, a soundscape of rain and birdsong, at once healing, threatening and under threat.

These are richly textured poems of living and resisting, anchored by connections to family, food, community – and an acknowledgement of the precarious root-holds of hard-won freedoms. A soaring, defiant hymn to recovery, this vital book contemplates migration, otherness, and all the internal and external elements that bind us, make us unique.

98 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 21, 2023

Reviews

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, fierce, angry, often funny, poetry collection from a new-to-me poet, Ian Humphreys. I must admit that I picked 'Tormentil' up in a local bookshop because of it's absolutely stunning cover, which dates to 1892, but I'm so glad that I did.

This collection explores identity in a way that feels intimate and tender. I learned so much about what it feels to be labelled 'other' in this land, whether because of race, culture, or sexuality, and these poems of grief and defiance are interspersed with the comfort and belonging to be found in nature.

My favourite poem is 'crazydream ii';

'and after that I turned into a jay
sloughing a mole pelt
when the puffball blew
its dark magic
against my tongue...'

Just beautiful!

[Anne Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this charming little poetry book. I was loaned a copy …. Will definitely buy my own. It’s a book for re-reading