Moonrise

by Meirion Jordan

Finely held moods and moments resonate throughout this accomplished collection of poetry. Apocalyptic, post-industrial imagery blends with myth and classical motifs to echo thoroughly modern contexts with plot twists, clever inversions, and mysterious incantatory digressions. Also heavily influenced by popular science fiction, this engaging and musically deft compendium discusses the ironies of urban life, adolescence, and Welsh history and identity with frequent doses of satire.

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[River Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought I'd dip my toe into poetry at the recommendation of my good friend Julie, this short anthology of poems between one two two or three pages long blends concepts of 90's/00's nostalgia for Wales' humdrum stores and cars and everyday with imagery of the unspoiled heavens, focusing often (as the name, drawn from one of the last poems, implies) on the moon.

The language has sublime images and moments of succinct clarity, and this book is worth the price of admission to read some of the illustrative connections and metaphors the author paints, such as wearing the rhythm of the sea, or a heart flexing its red wings. It's genuinely beautiful at times.

This is just as likely a flaw emergent from my inexperience with poetry, but I did struggle to decipher meaning and subtext at times. I feel there was a lot going on that I missed, which is frustrating, ymmv. Also, though the poems have very high highs, some did not move me much, again ymmv.

My favourite poems were Sky Writing, HMS Ark Royal In Action, For The Cosmonauts, and Hinterlands, all of which felt like they captured ideas in a five word line that it would take reams of pages to fully expedite. Several more had individual lines that sparked my imagination and mind, and put together this makes it worth its price as something to pick up and flick through.

[M.B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven, but on the whole good, and he's only 24. Occasionally too Dylan Thomasish. But I liked these poems, particularly 'Calculus', 'The insular miniscules', 'Another poem about living on Mars', 'The Nuclear Disaster Appreciation Society', 'The parks in flood', 'Hawthorns blossoming', and 'Saints of the African Church'.