POETRY!!! POETRY

I recently bought Gabriel Fitzmaurice’s sonnet collection, “Twenty One Sonnets”. It is available in shops. And on the internet.

The presentation is the main thing I want to talk about. The poems are accompanied by illustrations from Brenda Fitzmaurice. They are titled after lines in the poems. This I thought was a nice touch and the pictures convey the meaning of the poems simply. It is also, rather annoyingly, an idea I had. Obviously after Fitzmaurice but where they use a combination of paint and photos, I was thinking of just using photos. Brining in another medium adds to the package and I liked it.

The poems themselves, whilst not being “classical” Shakespearian or Italian sonnets – and more in the Robert Sheppard “Warrent Error” mould – are interesting and well written. Whilst not the best collection I have ever read I liked it and will no doubt return to them in the future.

And as a little ajoinder:

“Everyone thinks their mother is the best,

Except, of course, if your mother’s Rose West (M Bolton, 2010)