Jutland

by Selima Hill

Jutland brings together two contrasting poem sequences by 'this brilliant lyricist of human darkness' (Fiona Sampson), Advice on Wearing Animal Prints, winner of the Michael Marks Poetry Award, and Sunday Afternoons at the Gravel-pits. Like all of Selima Hill's work, both sequences chart 'extreme experience with a dazzling excess' (Deryn Rees-Jones), with startling humour and surprising combinations of homely and outlandish. Jutland poses questions about forgiveness, 'but the answers, / like Valentines, are never enough', as she writes in 'Wolverine': 'And can't he understand / I'm trying to love him but I don't know how? / And is it true forgiveness is forgiveness / only if the person first repents? / That kindness isn't kindness but self-sacrifice?' Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.

Genres: Poetry

107 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Selima Hill (born 13 October 1945 in Hampstead) is a British poet.

Selima Hill grew up in rural England and Wales. She read Moral Sciences at New Hall, Cambridge University (1965-7). She regularly collaborates with artists and has worked on multimedia projects with the Royal Ballet, Welsh National Opera and BBC Bristol. She is a tutor at the Poetry School in London, and has taught creative writing in hospitals and prisons.

Selima Hill won first prize in the 1988 Arvon Foundation/Observer International Poetry Competition for her long poem The Accumulation of Small Acts of Kindness, and her 1997 collection, Violet, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year), the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award. Her book of poetry, Bunny (2001), a series of poems about a young girl growing up in the 1950s, won the Whitbread Poetry Award. A selected poems: Gloria, was published in 2008.

She was a Fellow at University of Exeter.

Selima Hill lives in Lyme Regis. Her most recent book of poetry is People Who Like Meatballs (2012), shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Cooch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four and a half stars

The brilliance of understatement and implication written between the lines say more than blatant words ever can. She is a unique voice with a unique style. The poems work together to gradually and incrementally give a full picture.

[Jerry Wall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't know how to rate as another futile attempt on my part to understand modern
unrhymed mostly verse and insights by poets. Still no success on my part. Maybe
some other time I will figure out what it is about?

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent

[Joe Avary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharp, succinct, and evocative poems that flow along a narrative arc. Did I say sharp?

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was recommended to me by a friend and so I was delighted to come across it in Foyles today. The book consists of two poem sequences and the second, Sunday Afternoons at the Gravel-pits, was my favourite. It depicts the relationship between a daughter and her father, from her birth to his death. Although they are very simple, one and two stanza poems, consisting of just a few lines, they felt as satisfying to me as reading a novel. The imagery is startling, disconcerting and full of suppressed emotion. I look forward to reading more of Selima Hill's work.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow some serious (abusive?) father issues...