Before we get on to an actual review of this volume of poetry, perhaps a small personal intro is in order, to explain the interest, and why I chose this task.
In a previous life, I had written hundreds of reviews, in a style that came so easy to me; lots and lots of eloquentness and articulacy producing lots and lots of words.
Unfortunately a very poorly-timed stroke brought so much to a halt. But instead it has opened my eyes to the massive, monstrous number of people among us, all undergoing various levels of distress, pain and hardship, all things which arrived in their lives totally uninvited.
The book at hand is titled The Poetical Lobe – A Community Poetry Anthology, and it is a collection of poems penned by a group of 55 poets, every one of whom knows first-hand the effects of neurological disorders. Those disorders range from strokes, migraines, dementia, motor neuron disease, Parkinson’s, aphasia. Everybody knows somebody who is affected.
Volume One, as it is also named, was brought to fruition by Dr Loredana Podolska-Kint, currently working as a junior doctor, who in her early days had seen stunning recoveries in some patients, but still saw big numbers of neurological conditions that still had no cure.
At some point she realised that poetry was an unusual art form, a way of immortalising the words of those she worked with, a deeply emotional way. And Volume One was born, tales of recovery and resilience, frustration and grief.
The foreword is written by Sir Richard Faull, and I (wrongly) assumed the author had found a Knight to add a puff piece, to add a bit of grandeur to her book.
So wrong (again). Sir Richard is the Director of the Centre for Brain Research, and is completely hands-on with everything in the neurological world. If you pick up this book, you have to read the foreword. Then you get to the meat of volume one; a group of wildly different – but still the same – poems, from a group of wildly different people.
Roger Hicks – `As a young man I was often told I was tall and handsome, a joy to behold Now I’m bent over, all shuffle and shake I’m in the wrong body, there’s been a mistake.’
Art Nahill – ‘Face, fear, fountain, forest, fear Did I say ‘fear’ twice? My clock looks terribly sad without hands to speak. But I had long red hair as a young woman And a blue coat all my friends were jealous of. I remember that. I remember that blue.’
And from my friend Debbie Malloch – ‘Come with me into the world of Aphasia The gift that keeps on taking. Aphasia is a thief That steals my words Takes my communication skills To then make me talk in riddles.’
These are just tiny snippets of 140 pages of poetry, from the heart or the brain, that you will find compelling, challenging, and above all emotionally powerful. And of all the books I have reviewed, this one is going to hang around, like, forever. Seriously recommended.
Oh, and I’m absolutely convinced that volume one will have a sequel, sooner rather than later.
Available at The CopyPress; email [email protected]
– Reviewed by Steve Devereux
