Missel-Child

by Helen Tookey

According to the 17th-century herbarium The Garden of Eden, a “missel-child” is a mysterious being found beneath a mistletoe-covered tree—a changeling, perhaps. In this first collection from a respected editor, the missel-child is a point of access to various archaeologies of identity, place, and language. The poems deploy syllabics and collage techniques as they explore elegy and myth. Each poem is a space in which language works not only to convey something verbally, but to enable it to be shown as well.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Helen Tookey was born near Leicester in 1969. She studied philosophy and literature at university and has worked in academic publishing, as a university teacher, and as a freelance editor. Her short collection Telling the Fractures, a collaboration with photographer Alan Ward, was published by Axis Projects in 2008. Her verse was anthologised in New Poetries V (Carcanet, 2011). Missel-Child (Carcanet, 2013), is her first full collection.

Reviews

[Tasha Mellins-Cohen]

I enjoyed Missel-Child, but felt that I really needed to give it more focused attention than I could bring to bear on a busy train. The author's style is rather sparse and disjointed, which is a real departure from my usual reading choice. I'll definitely re-read individual poems from the anthology, but I'm not convinced I'd purchase this as a way of introducing anyone to poetry!

*Goodreads First Read Review*