Jacqueline Saphra's All My Mad Mothers (shortlisted for the 2017 TS Eliot Prize for Poetry) explores love, sex and family relationships in vivacious, lush poems that span the decades and generations. At the heart of this collection of poems is the portrait of a mother as multitudes - as a magician with a bathroom of beauty tricks, as necromancer, as glamourous fire-starter, trapped in ever-decreasing circles and, above all else, almost impossible to grasp.
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[In the winter of 1962 my mother / gathered up her baby her trembling soul / climbed into the Mini my father had bought / as penance for his bad behaviour]***
[Nine Arches Press, 19 October 2017, first published 24 May 2017, 75 pages, ebook, borrowed from @natpoetrylib via @OverDriveLibs]
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I'd never read or even heard of the poet before. I liked the title and cover so decided to give this collection a shot. Good choice! There's something I loved about all of the poems in this collection. They are beautifully written, surreal yet believable at the same time. I love the way the poet explores family relationships and values, especially between a mother and daughter. There is a sense of frailty in the poems and just a hint of sadness. The poems also explore love. I cannot fault a single one.
