A celebrated winner of fiction's Orange Prize, Helen Dunmore is as spellbinding a storyteller in her poetry as in her novels. As in her fiction, these haunting narratives draw us into darkness, engaging our fears and hopes in poetry of rare luminosity. Her poems also cast a bright, revealing light on the living world, by land and sea, on love, longing and loss. "Out of the Blue" presents a comprehensive selection from her seven previous books of poetry. It also includes a collection of completely new poems remarkable for their sensuous magic, sharp delicacy and sureness of touch.
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[Speak to me in the only language / I understand, help me to see / as you saw the enemy plane / pounce on you out of the Sun: / one flash, cockling metal. Done (OUT OF THE BLUE]***
(Bloodaxe Books, 14 May 2014 (first published 2001), borrowed from the library)
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Out of the Blue is packed with the kind of poems I love to read and write.
I loved every poem in this collection.
My favourites included the title poem, Ice Coming, As Good as It Gets, Lemon Sole, Herring Girl, The Apple Fall, Winter Fairs, In Deep Water, The Sea Skater, A Dream of Wool, Dublin 1971, Privacy of Rain, Rinsing, Three Ways of Recovering A Body, Cajun, Next Door and Tiger Lookout.
This collection was a joy to read, to dip in and out of at odd moments. Dunmore has a talent for creating vivid ideas and images with words. I was engrossed from start to finish.
Dunmore knows exactly what a great poem should be.
