From X-Factor to X-rated, the third least common letter in the English alphabet appears commonly in life. In this sixth collection from award-winning poet Vona Groarke, X occurs when the known and the intuited cross each other's paths. These poems take pleasure in surface and depth. From the luminous colour of the garden sequence to its response to the transcendent spaces of Danish artist, Vilhelm Hammershøi, X marks feeling and experience in language as daring as it is beautiful. This is a book of candour and poise: a groundbreaking publication from a writer hailed in Poetry Ireland Review as 'among the best Irish poets writing today'.
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The day the first snowdrop in my winter garden insistsin its own insistent way that the promise I buriedlast September would finally come to light, I waketo the hoops of a woodpigeon puts himself through.- A Pocket Mirror
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(@TheGalleryPress, 17 March 2018, e-book, 98 pages, borrowed from @natpoetrylib via @OverDriveInc, #POPSUGARReadingChallenge, a book that starts with the letter 'X')
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This is a new poet for me. I decided to read X simply because it fit into the Popsugar category. I'm glad I did because I thought this collection of poetry was pretty great and have discovered a new poet to devour and obsess over. I enjoyed every poem in this collection. I enjoyed the fact that the poems are all quite different so I never knew what to expect when I turned the page. I would like to read more of this poet's work. I'd recommend X.
