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In These Days of Prohibition
In These Days of Prohibition is Caroline Bird’s fifth Carcanet collection. As always, she is a poet of dark hilarity and telling social comment. Shifting between poetic and vulgar registers, the surreal imagery of her early work is re-deployed to venture into the badlands of the human psyche. Her poems hold their subjects in an unflinching grip, addressing faces behind the veneer, asking what it is that keeps us alive. These days of prohibition are days of intoxication and inebriation, rehab in a desert and adultery for atheists, until finally Bird edges us out of danger, ‘revving on a wish’.
- GenresPoetry
63 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 2017
4 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Bird
18 books51 followersCaroline Bird was born in 1986 and grew up in Leeds before moving to London in 2001.
Caroline had been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize twice in 2008 and 2010 and was the youngest writer on the list both times. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014. She has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002) and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), and was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011.
Caroline has had four collections of poetry published by Carcanet. Her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes (published in 2002 when she was only 15) is a topical, zesty and formally delightful collection of poems built on the traditions of fairy tale, fantasy and romance. Her second collection, Trouble Came to the Turnip, was published in September 2006 to critical acclaim. Watering Can, her third collection published in November 2009 celebrates life as an early twenty-something with comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation. Her fourth collection, The Hat-Stand Union, was described by Simon Armitage as ‘spring-loaded, funny, sad and deadly.’ Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, is due to be published July 2017.
Bird’s poems have been published in several anthologies and journals including Poetry Magazine, PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine. Several of her poems and a commissioned short story, Sucking Eggs, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012. Her poem, The Fun Palace, which celebrates the life and work of Joan Littlewood, is now erected on the Olympic Site outside the main stadium.
In recent years, Caroline has given poetry performances at Aldeburgh Festival, Latitude Festival, the Manchester Literature Festival, the Wellcome Collection (with Don Paterson,) the Royal Festival Hall (with Elaine Feinstein), St Hilda’s College (with Wendy Cope), the Wordsworth Trust (with Gillian Allnutt), Cheltenham Festival, and Ledbury Festival, amongst others.
Caroline Bird began writing plays as a teenager when she was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. In 2011 Caroline was invited to take part in Sixty Six Books by the Bush Theatre. She wrote a piece inspired by Leviticus, directed by Peter Gill. In February 2012, her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre. She is currently writing the book and lyrics for Dennis the Menace the Musical for The Old Vic.
Caroline’s new version of The Trojan Women premiered at the Gate Theatre at the end of 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Caroline’s play Chamber Piece featured as Show 3 in the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre season, premiering in October 2013, before touring the country. In 2013, Caroline was short-listed for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards. In Christmas 2015, her re-twisted telling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz premiered at Northern Stage, and received a four star review in The Times.
Caroline is also an enthusiastic leader of poetry workshops. In addition to working in primary and secondary schools, she is also a regular teacher at the Arvon Foundation. She is one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story. She is currently mentoring three exciting poets – Rachel Long, Emma Simon and Hilary Watson – for the Jerwood Arvon Mentorship Scheme.
Caroline had been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize twice in 2008 and 2010 and was the youngest writer on the list both times. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014. She has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002) and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), and was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011.
Caroline has had four collections of poetry published by Carcanet. Her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes (published in 2002 when she was only 15) is a topical, zesty and formally delightful collection of poems built on the traditions of fairy tale, fantasy and romance. Her second collection, Trouble Came to the Turnip, was published in September 2006 to critical acclaim. Watering Can, her third collection published in November 2009 celebrates life as an early twenty-something with comedy, wordplay and bright self-deprecation. Her fourth collection, The Hat-Stand Union, was described by Simon Armitage as ‘spring-loaded, funny, sad and deadly.’ Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, is due to be published July 2017.
Bird’s poems have been published in several anthologies and journals including Poetry Magazine, PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine. Several of her poems and a commissioned short story, Sucking Eggs, have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012. Her poem, The Fun Palace, which celebrates the life and work of Joan Littlewood, is now erected on the Olympic Site outside the main stadium.
In recent years, Caroline has given poetry performances at Aldeburgh Festival, Latitude Festival, the Manchester Literature Festival, the Wellcome Collection (with Don Paterson,) the Royal Festival Hall (with Elaine Feinstein), St Hilda’s College (with Wendy Cope), the Wordsworth Trust (with Gillian Allnutt), Cheltenham Festival, and Ledbury Festival, amongst others.
Caroline Bird began writing plays as a teenager when she was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. In 2011 Caroline was invited to take part in Sixty Six Books by the Bush Theatre. She wrote a piece inspired by Leviticus, directed by Peter Gill. In February 2012, her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre. She is currently writing the book and lyrics for Dennis the Menace the Musical for The Old Vic.
Caroline’s new version of The Trojan Women premiered at the Gate Theatre at the end of 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Caroline’s play Chamber Piece featured as Show 3 in the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre season, premiering in October 2013, before touring the country. In 2013, Caroline was short-listed for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards. In Christmas 2015, her re-twisted telling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz premiered at Northern Stage, and received a four star review in The Times.
Caroline is also an enthusiastic leader of poetry workshops. In addition to working in primary and secondary schools, she is also a regular teacher at the Arvon Foundation. She is one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story. She is currently mentoring three exciting poets – Rachel Long, Emma Simon and Hilary Watson – for the Jerwood Arvon Mentorship Scheme.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 13, 2021
The title poem may make literal reference to a 1920s speakeasy, but if you interpret it more broadly it feels right for our times: How should we live in a time of lockdown, when so much is forbidden and many of our usual comforts are not available? Bird writes about mental illness and the crutches people turn to, including drugs and sex, in a way that’s both intense and flippant. The poems are consistently surprising and funny, making me laugh at the random and surreal set-ups, the repetition and rhetorical questions.
For instance, in “Beatification” a 105-year-old man turns to crystal meth and sadomasochistic pornography, while in “Ms Casanova on Life Support” a woman pretends to be in a coma while a series of beautiful women sit vigil by her hospital bed. “Megan Married Herself” imagines a wedding with just one person at the altar. “Patient Intake Questionnaire” and “Family Christmas” were two of my favorites, with sample lines below:
Do sandwiches appear intricately designed?
Do you think of waterfalls when lighting a match?
Have you started to look at pigeons like they know something?
The live-in nurse,
who lives in Grandma’s stomach,
starts the spring-clean, ejecting stuff
like sprouts, ramekins, electrodes.
At one point something huge and living
coughs out the laundry chute of her lips
then fades in the parsnip puree
to a foetal swirl.
For instance, in “Beatification” a 105-year-old man turns to crystal meth and sadomasochistic pornography, while in “Ms Casanova on Life Support” a woman pretends to be in a coma while a series of beautiful women sit vigil by her hospital bed. “Megan Married Herself” imagines a wedding with just one person at the altar. “Patient Intake Questionnaire” and “Family Christmas” were two of my favorites, with sample lines below:
Do sandwiches appear intricately designed?
Do you think of waterfalls when lighting a match?
Have you started to look at pigeons like they know something?
The live-in nurse,
who lives in Grandma’s stomach,
starts the spring-clean, ejecting stuff
like sprouts, ramekins, electrodes.
At one point something huge and living
coughs out the laundry chute of her lips
then fades in the parsnip puree
to a foetal swirl.
December 3, 2020
An energetic, witty collection, focusing on experiences with bipolar disorder and depression, as well as the absurdity of life, experiences of vulnerability, and moments of beauty. Despite often taking extreme or ridiculous premises, poems have real emotion and tenderness. Beatification begins, "My father was a hundred and five years old when he discovered the pleasures of crystal meth." It then goes on to describe the father becoming an expert in BDSM, calling himself "The Pounding Pensioner", but despite the element of the ridiculous, the poem also captures the father's blossoming autonomy, describing how, "The last time I visited he was slow dancing to trance music in the hallway with a young body builder. They were both naked." Bird's poems use surprising or in-your-face imagery to lead the reader to a place of real emotion, surprising us by confronting us with our own vulnerability. One of my favourites in the collection, Stephanie, describes a girl who, "used 'party' as a verb, lashes / like the whiskers of an oil-soaked seal" who seduces the narrator when they are both in-patients in a psychiatric ward. The poem is quirky and off-beat, and yet ends tenderly, wanting the relationship to be real, "to do with real electricity or Stephanie / somehow spying the part worth saving in me." Other poems also use a strange premise -- such as a toddler dancing on a manhole cover (A Toddler Creates Thunder by Dancing on a Manhole) or teardrops as soldiers (The Military Life of a Maverick Teardrop) -- to give their narrators autonomy and bring fear into focus without allowing it to overwhelm us. Not all these poems work for me -- Megan Married Herself didn't do enough to make its premise, about a woman marrying herself, feel interesting or have depth, and the titular poem, despite its sophisticated use of form, didn't really come together, but Bird is a clever, imaginative poet who surprises the reader and asks real questions about modern life. Recommended.
April 1, 2020
I like British poets as well as American writers, but simply don't get introduced to them as often. Most poetry books make it to my wish list through a convincing Goodreads review or because I was so taken with a single poem that I added the book to my wish list. As often happens, I couldn't remember why I wanted this book. When I got to the final section, I found out. "Megan Married Herself" is a delightful, insightful poem that will stay with you. It alone is worth buying the book. You can find a short video of Caroline Bird reading it on YouTube.
Frankly, I wasn't enjoying section I very much. Some of the poems were too listy for my tastes, and I wasn't connecting with most of them. The coronavirus quarantine may also have made me unreceptive to visiting the dark terrain of drug addiction and “Bipolar Pergatory.” Then came sections II and III to completely win me over. I love wry wit that carries a serious message. In "Adultery for Atheists," the speaker goes through the ways guilt would be loaded on her by different religions and concludes,
"…what luck to be
Godless thus so unperturbed
by reproaches like felled trees
blocking all roads ahead or this
very peculiar black cat sitting
on my bed after midnight just
staring at me calmly.”
“A Toddler Creates Thunder by Dancing on a Manhole” is totally charming. The title alone is enough to bring a smile, but Bird makes a twist. The moment is no longer just about the delight of innocence and discovery but a wishful worldview. Here’s one of my favorite images from the poem,
“(Toddlers always dance like marionettes,
their brains still learning the strings.) …”
Frankly, I wasn't enjoying section I very much. Some of the poems were too listy for my tastes, and I wasn't connecting with most of them. The coronavirus quarantine may also have made me unreceptive to visiting the dark terrain of drug addiction and “Bipolar Pergatory.” Then came sections II and III to completely win me over. I love wry wit that carries a serious message. In "Adultery for Atheists," the speaker goes through the ways guilt would be loaded on her by different religions and concludes,
"…what luck to be
Godless thus so unperturbed
by reproaches like felled trees
blocking all roads ahead or this
very peculiar black cat sitting
on my bed after midnight just
staring at me calmly.”
“A Toddler Creates Thunder by Dancing on a Manhole” is totally charming. The title alone is enough to bring a smile, but Bird makes a twist. The moment is no longer just about the delight of innocence and discovery but a wishful worldview. Here’s one of my favorite images from the poem,
“(Toddlers always dance like marionettes,
their brains still learning the strings.) …”
Read
November 14, 2020I read this collection in one sitting. Thanks, Kara!
March 5, 2018
Poems from PN Review, Poetry Magazine, Poetry Review, The Rialto, etc. She said this in an interview - “I started this book 10 years ago even though I have had four books out in between. I ended up in a rehab facility in the Arizona desert. ... I ended up there for the reason most people do, which is that I was an addict and didn’t like myself enough." Oh no, I thought, not another addiction book. But this wasn't dashed out as therapy. It's a delayed selection, tracking a recovery. The first piece is sonnet-shaped, more info-dump than poem. "Patient intake questionnaire" is far better. I liked "Sentinel of anything" too. My favourite's the untypical "Eye contact". "The Moment" is the weakest.
I liked the earlier books of hers that I've read. I'm less sure about this one. When she strays into Melissa Lee-Houghton territory she looks a bit tame. When she writes Flash/mini-fiction (e.g. "Stephanie", "Beatification") she has tough competition.
She likes starting with a metaphor that extends into an analogy or even an allegory. I'm not sure all the extensions work - the resulting poem can feel sparse. "A toddler creates thunder by dancing on a manhole" seems to have developed from the observation mentioned in the title and has developed much as prose would. It's 2 pages long with only a few images, e.g. "Toddlers always dance like marionettes, their brains still learning the strings". In the final poem, "I want to marvel at the woman/ who ducks when she drives under bridges/ as if her body is the car ... as if she isn't in a car as all ... no car seat either, squatting on space like a lost figurine once glued to a ting bench on a train-set platform ... This blonde star in her car made of atoms, revving on a wish" which seems promising.
I liked the earlier books of hers that I've read. I'm less sure about this one. When she strays into Melissa Lee-Houghton territory she looks a bit tame. When she writes Flash/mini-fiction (e.g. "Stephanie", "Beatification") she has tough competition.
She likes starting with a metaphor that extends into an analogy or even an allegory. I'm not sure all the extensions work - the resulting poem can feel sparse. "A toddler creates thunder by dancing on a manhole" seems to have developed from the observation mentioned in the title and has developed much as prose would. It's 2 pages long with only a few images, e.g. "Toddlers always dance like marionettes, their brains still learning the strings". In the final poem, "I want to marvel at the woman/ who ducks when she drives under bridges/ as if her body is the car ... as if she isn't in a car as all ... no car seat either, squatting on space like a lost figurine once glued to a ting bench on a train-set platform ... This blonde star in her car made of atoms, revving on a wish" which seems promising.
October 11, 2017
Caroline is brilliant and captivating. Her collection is beautiful and visceral in a way that feels as though you're experiencing her experiences-- all the pain, the rage, the turmoil, the humor, the self deprecation, the quirks and moments of odd giddiness-- for yourself. I had the pleasure of seeing Caroline read/perform poems from this collection live at Oxford and I can only say that I wish everyone could have the same experience. What's on the page is lovely, but having the opportunity to see her perform and give commentary that masterfully straddled hilarity and the macabre has been one of the highlights of my term. If you have the opportunity to see her live, do it. Do it. Do it.
September 17, 2018
About three lines into Caroline Bird’s newest poetry collection, ‘In These Days of Prohibition’, I knew I was about to become a devoted fan. Bird writes with stunning clarity, effortless poise, weaving dark humour into the most poignant of reflections on life, death, inevitability and futility. Few other poets have been as successful in their writing of mental illness; but Caroline Bird’s directness, scalpel-like, enables the truest autopsy, gloriously illuminated in her solitary, hopelessly hopeful tone. I look forward to reading all of her earlier work very soon.
July 3, 2018
Bird uses some really beautiful phrases which actually make sense (I find poetry’s meaning can get lost sometimes amongst all the iambic pentameter, and metaphors, and symbolism) and this was very refreshing. She is a very clever writer (though there were a few poems I couldn’t quite grasp) who uses the humorous and sentimental in the same sentence and can make me feel human and giggly simultaneously. Quite wonderful.
February 16, 2019
My fingers feel limp at the tips
like oversized gloves, as if
stock got lost in transit, stuffing
was mislaid; sediments of spirit
- from "I’ve Been Away"
Caroline Bird plays with the body, goes on wild flights of imagination, delivers poetry that soars and ducks and wanders.
Particular highlights for me:
Stephanie | I’ve Been Away | Self Storage | The Rags | Ms Casanova
like oversized gloves, as if
stock got lost in transit, stuffing
was mislaid; sediments of spirit
- from "I’ve Been Away"
Caroline Bird plays with the body, goes on wild flights of imagination, delivers poetry that soars and ducks and wanders.
Particular highlights for me:
Stephanie | I’ve Been Away | Self Storage | The Rags | Ms Casanova
Read
April 29, 2021I seem to find myself always almost liking Caroline Bird’s poetry - her work hovers between sometimes being lyrically abstract and other times being a bit too on the nose. I think the former tends to be a lot stronger, but I suspect that’s more personal preference than a comment on her work. A poet I might not recommend but will keep reading.
January 5, 2025
I wanna rip you open
like a sack of doves,
press my skin to the stir
of hindered flight,
feel the flutter swell
into a wheeling room,
an exodus fathoming air
like a scream,
a strobe-lit punch, my
whole sky crammed
with your lost pressure;
pocket just one
souvenir feather and
leave you in peace.
December 2, 2017
Fucking.
Incredible.
Incredible.
February 3, 2018
Brilliant. Inventive. Bravo.
October 17, 2019
Beautiful.
February 29, 2020
I enjoyed reading this collection and would definitely be reading more of Caroline Bird’s works. The book comes highly recommended and shows that greatness can come out of depressing situations.
July 19, 2021
I'd been proud to have written this.
Compulsively funny.
Compulsively funny.
October 20, 2021
till that day comes she is just the whirling
bits of a heart blown open.
bits of a heart blown open.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2022
A really really strong collection. Felt the first half was more electric than the second but maybe I was tired at the time Caroline I need to get there more
July 4, 2022
Some quite humorous quirky poems
This was a very short and sometimes too shallow book. There were a couple of good poems which saved the day.
This was a very short and sometimes too shallow book. There were a couple of good poems which saved the day.
April 1, 2023
some of these poems hit the mark for me and some didn’t. the poems focussing on mental illness were particularly vibrant and mostly my favourites.
May 24, 2023
Wow wow wow
I'll be re-reading this collection many times, and I greatly look forward to reading more of Bird's works now.
I'll be re-reading this collection many times, and I greatly look forward to reading more of Bird's works now.
August 28, 2024
Hilarious, strange, warm, rich and imaginative.
March 6, 2025
i loved the content, imagery and the use of form. bird is one of my favourite poets.
March 17, 2025
I like Caroline Bird but really struggled with this collection. Its clever but I didn't really connect with most of it. Megan Married Herself and Ms Casanova on Life were my faves
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews