Cutting Room

Connect with the author Buy the book: UK (affiliate's link) I was given a copy of this book by the publisher and voluntarily reviewed it. WHAT'S IT'S ABOUT

The vast and minute details that lodge within the words "my life" come forth resplendently in these poems. Jessica de Koninck is fluent in the impossible Esperanto of God and cinder blocks, Elvis and glue guns but, also, understandably haunted. Life very much includes death in her poems, the way knowledge includes ignorance. A stubborn, jumpy vitality abides, capable of real truth-telling as it examines, discards, clutches, praises and murmurs about the relics of love and grief. -Baron Wormser

EXTRACT

From Cutting Room

In the movie of my life
I am played by Lauren Bacall, Vivian Leigh
Sigourney Weaver. Definitely
someone older, more beautiful,
more vulnerable, more self-assured than I am...

WHAT I THOUGHT

This is my first time reading the poet.

I really enjoyed Cutting Room. I thought this was a really enjoyable collection of poems. I really liked the way the poet uses real-life people, places and images to explore her own world and experiences. Some of my favourite themes including love, death and grief are explored in this vivid, almost haunting collection. There is something about love, death and grief, the circle of life I suppose that never ceases to fascinate me. Cutting Room contains vibrant, almost visceral poems that were a joy to read. I would love to read more of the poet's work and would recommend this collection.

Published