Review by Jon Wilkins of "A Triptych of Birds & A Few Loose Feathers" by Pratibha Castle

What joy it must be
To have companions such as these
Flitting in and
Out of her life
Birds of every hue and tincture

Her descriptions vivid
Of flashes of colour
And aspect
Dazzling the page
With words of flight

Indeed across the page
We see them fly
Brought to life
By the poet's words

And casual turn of phrase. 

We see them
We feel them 
We can almost touch them

A joy to read

As we traverse from
Birds to Saints
From riddles to rhyme

Tales of trains

Mysteries and conceits
Parents and drowning
Vivid in thought and execution

A vast array of

Characters rounded
Surrounded her description  
Eloquent a joy to read.

So do read

And enter into
A world of words and dreams
Enjoy the spirit

So freely shared. 

A comfort and a challenge
In a time when
We dearly need the pleasure.

About the reviewer

Jonathan Wilkins is a Creative Writing PhD Student at Aberystwyth University, Wales, reading mostly Golden Age Crime fiction. His website is here. 

Review by Louise Brown of "Lost & Found" by Vic Pickup

 

Lost & Found, a collection of poetry by Vic Pickup, takes us on a journey of loss, caused by war, dementia, Covid, wintertime and children becoming adults, along with other forms of endings that we must all traverse. The writing is stunning and reminds you what good poetry does. These poems summon up, in concise stanzas, the vistas of human experience and loss to which we can all relate. The collection is accessible and  haunting.

When a boy is shot in the trenches, the reality of death is summoned with the lines:

          and then flung sack heavy,
          a boy across your lap,
          red berries leaking hot,
          and sticky on your arms and fingers.

When a mother reflects on her growing child, she does so with imaginative force when she says: 'Her tea parties will soon be upgraded from teddy bears’ picnics / to speed dates with Darth Varder and Barbie –'

There is also the joyful evocation of nature in these lines describing the start of a day:

          The Dawntreader wades through a mist
          that sleeps on the towpath,
          pouring onto the canal between rushes,
          creeping up the banks in wisps.
          

          He regards the heron perched upon a diving twig,
          watching, waiting. A dipped beak
          and a glint of silver hangs limp.

I wanted to keep reading and rereading these poems. They are like food for the soul in these uncertain times, and I urge any reader to lose themselves in the beautiful poems created by this talented poet.

About the reviewer
Louise Brown has recently completed her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester and has poems published in Acumen, and online with the Ink Pantry. She is currently completing her first draft novel, a legal thriller, and hopes to secure an agent to represent her.  She is also a mother to three, a part-time employment solicitor and lives on a farm with her husband in the Welland Valley, in Rutland.