By turns moving, playful and wise, the poems gathered in Dearly are about absences and endings, ageing and retrospection, but also about gifts and renewals. They explore bodies and minds in transition, as well as the everyday objects and rituals that embed us in the present. Werewolves, sirens and dreams make their appearance, as do various forms of animal life and fragments of our damaged environment.
Before she became one of the world's most important and loved novelists, Atwood was a poet. Dearly is her first collection in over a decade. It brings together many of her most recognisable and celebrated themes but distilled - from minutely perfect descriptions of the natural world to startlingly witty encounters with aliens, from pressing political issues to myth and legend. It is a pure Atwood delight, and long-term readers and new fans alike will treasure its insight, empathy and humour.
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These are the late poems Most poems are late of course, too late like a letter sent by a sailor that arrives after he's drowned LATE POEMS
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(@ChattoBooks, 10 November 2020, hardback, 124 pages, bought from @AmazonUK)
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Atwood is one of my favourite writers, yet I've never read any of her poetry. I'm glad I have now rectified this serious oversight and have now added her earlier collection to my TBR list. The language and style of the poems in Dearly is very different from her fiction, at least to me anyway so it felt like discovering a brand new voice I'd never read before. The themes are far-ranging diverse and include some themes Atwood explores in her fiction. Dearly is a treat and I loved everything about it. The best poems are Ghost Cat, Songs for Murdered Sisters, Zombie, Plasticine Suite and Blackberries.
