The plumb line distils so much emotional depth and human significance – moments whose ripples spread out across a lifetime and beyond – they really spoke to me, There is real strength in the poet’s honesty and vulnerability – her openness to grief too: poem after poem in that first section, from Thumb Talk, Ghost Mother, On Being Sent Away to School (that shocking first line) The Arrival (with that unforgettable image of the swaying trunk like a coffin), My Sister Takes A Happy Family Photo (the final couplet is very powerful), the utter shock of Appeasement, the deep unease the poet communicates in My Funny Valentine. I think she writes with a lot of craft as a container for and communicator of all that has happened to her – a potent distillate. And such a distinctive accessible voice.The second section continues in this vein: so many poems (like Grace, with its stunning final quatrain), the beautifully observed Becoming Invisible for instance, and the very moving final section about the poet’s mum and dad – poems I have returned to many times – that image of the alembic! – the mystery and power of Your Last Hours…’Ultimate mysteries blown to the widest wonder’: the plumb line trying to fathom the meaning of itself.
Helene Demetriades Poetry
