Review by Gary Day of "Sojourn: Moments in Poetry" by Christine Hammond

There’s much to admire, like and treasure in Christine Hammond’s debut collection: the mystery of "Snowdrops 1963," the beauty and grief of "White Rose" and the exquisite delicacy of the haiku sequence "Little Rose Garden." For those who crave something more visceral there’s "Menopause," where tampons have the same dark tendencies as the murderers in Macbeth: "your bloody employ / to stab the childless." Then there’s "Rape," a work of such intense fury that it brands itself indelibly on the mind.

In contrast are poems of piercing tenderness. "Sandeel Bay" is a memory of a lovers' outing. The pair pick berries and watch "grey seals turn at the rocks." It is "a perfect day," and the last two lines sweep in like a wave, lifting this reader, at least, to a new level of awareness. "Perpetual Motion" is a fine expression of one of the themes of the collection: how to keep the best of the past alive in the present. It is arguably Wordsworth’s chief concern in "Intimations of Immortality" from which Hammond quotes the expression "trailing clouds of glory." In "The Twisted Key" the lines "couldn’t anybody tell her? / Did nobody know" seem to echo the Beatles' "Didn't anybody tell her? Didn't anybody see?" from "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window."

"Ritual" is another exploration, or rather evocation, of the relationship between past and present. It describes the poet's mother lighting a fire in the "immaculate hearth." The line "the glow of broadsheet rosettes / cast a news flash for the era" is only one example of Hammond's gift for fusing the personal, the poetic and the political. I hope this collection is widely read to give Hammond the audience she deserves.

About the reviewer
Gary Day is a retired English lecturer and author of several books including Literary Criticism: A New History and The Story of Drama: Tragedy Comedy and Sacrifice. He is also co-editor of The Wiley Encyclopedia of British Literature 1660-1789. His poetry has been highly commended in a number of competitions, most recently in the Write Out Loud Echoes competition. His work has appeared in The High Window, The Seventh Quarry, The Dawn Treader as well as various other magazines.