Robyn Bolam's new collection, Hyem, explores what and who makes us feel at home. Both people, and creatures - from whales off Kaikoura in New Zealand, New Forest cicadas, fish in the Thames, wrens, robins and starlings, to a climbing fox - face challenges to find homes where they can thrive. Hyem lets you walk London streets with Dickens or share the last moments of a 17th-century helmsman, whose final home is Stockholm's Vasa museum. A wolves' valley becomes home to surfers and a high voltage laboratory turns into a creative home for a poet. Hyem (home in Geordie) is also about growing up on Tyneside, loving a place through changes and celebrating those who preserve its history and spirit. Hyem is Robyn Bolam's first book of poetry since her retrospective New Wings: Poems 1977-2007, which included work from two earlier collections, The Peepshow Girl (1989) and Raiding the Borders (1996).
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[I used to cross the Tyne to school. Days raced on a rattling, crowded bus, hands gripping fingered chrome, knees braced against straining seats - WHERE HOME STARTED]***
(Bloodaxe Books, 9 November 2017, ebook, 80 pages, borrowed from the National Poetry Library)
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This is my first time reading the poet's work. I chose it because I love the front cover. Hyem is an enjoyable collection of poems. Bolam's subject matter isn't the kind I usually enjoy reading. Still, I found some of the poems enjoyable. Other poems left me cold. Hyem is a bit of a mixed collection as some of the pieces work really well and others just didn't speak to me. I liked the idea behind the collection, what and who makes us feel at home. This came through strongly more in some poems than others. I would read more of Bolam's work. The poems are well-written and vivid. It's just the subject matter that didn't quite gel for me.
