Just the Plague by Ludmila Ulitskaya

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Based on events from 1939 and written in 1988 but only published in 2020 when it finally resonated it is a window on our relationship with the state as much as anything else.

A scientist working of an plague vaccine (is this work in preparation for the state using the plague as a weapon?) becomes infected. Summons to Moscow, unable to refuse the summons, he travels on a train spreading the infection. Once in Moscow he is visibly ill, and the secret police with brutal efficiency find and isolate the contacts – and the plague is contained, only 3 people die as a result.

The question I think this put before us is the authoritarian state was effective in stopping this plague so does that become a justification for state control – however if we use COVID as a worked example it shows we see a range of responses, some democracies dealt with it well, some authoritarian states didn’t.

One of the best things about this book is that it doesn’t try to answer the questions – they hang in the air, between the lines, we have the fact of the situation but we have to make our own moral judgements

Sagittarius A* by Ben Kline

In these poems Ben plays with the astronomical to speak about humanity, about loneliness, love, and sometimes I think just about the stars.

I am a big fan of Ben Kline’s work and I think he speaks such deep truth and authenticity.

Fourteen Poems Pamphlets 2025

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The End of Art by Zara Meadows

I think Zara had a poem in Fourteen Poems and was really engaging during the IG live and there is an underlying sense of joy about her and her work.

I could have tagged every poem, Zara has an eye for seeing that little bit around the corner of reality, taking the familiar and showing it to us afresh.

(In)Habit by Hetty Cliss

There was a brightness to these poems, even when they were engaging with challenging topics, the darkness of life. A sense of reading the room and getting the tone exactly right. 

 

ecdysis: cacophony of skins by Dena Igusti

Dena’s creativity with form is really engaging, and this brings an additional layer to the power of the words.

Stiff Wrist by Ben Kline

Ben is a poet that I have really liked since he first featured in Fourteen Poems, and this is a typically delightful collection from him. There is a wittiness, and also something about being a gay of a certain (similar) age – not exactly wisdom – that gives a richness to the poems, particularly for me.

mango & starblush by Kayleigh Jayshree

Within this collection I found Elegy for Dead Chihuahua a special gem – a great example of looking at the world with that slight twist that can bring things into focus, something that is true across all the poems.

She will need a stable boy by Jamie Lock

I found the final poem, Progress, packed a really intense punch, in its simplicity it says so much, and talks of pain and compassion and tenderness, while leaving almost everything unsaid.

 

& Change Issue 10

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Another great set of poets

I particularly enjoyed:

According to Lesley by Simon Maddrell

Plantae by Neal Allen Shipley

Straight Boys by Tim Stobierski

Where the jackals howl and other stories by Amos Oz

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I brought this book back in September 2015 due some reference to the story The Way of the Wind in something else I read at the time (although even looking back through this blog not share exactly what that was). And finally got around to reading the rest of it…

These stories are full of emotional charge, exploring the complexities of relationships, the struggles around identity (although whether ‘identity’ would have been the term back in the 1960s when they were written), and the sense of place. The kibbutz setting of most of the stories brings much of this into sharp relief – it is setting where the sense of community and of purpose is strong, and so any dislocation can as a result become intense.

Do these stories have a message? It is a subtle one, about the human experience rather than a straight forwardly political one.

These are stories that linger in the mind, so well crafted that they draw you in and make you feel the emotions of the participants.

Aquarium by C. C. McKee

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Aqua’s Barbie Girl is often seen, and dismissed, as a novelty song. And so it is really good to have this book in which C. C. McKee takes it seriously, showing that Aqua were credible musicians and Barbie Girl was an expression of their craft / their art.

They set Aqua in the context of the Danish music scene and show both the influences on Aqua and the ways in that Aqua influenced others.

As well as Barbie Girl, which has renewed fame due to the Barbie movies, they also explore the other singles from the Aquarium album. Some of these are songs which I was not familiar with – and good to be introduced to them and see how the skill that created the hit Barbie Girl are also on show in the wider work. And the contrast with Turn Back Time, a song I had forgotten was by Aqua...

They also explore ideas of ‘camp’ and how through the dance remixes of their songs Aqua were linked into the gay scene – how this was a particular important part of their success in the USA – and it is again this is the validation of taking seriously of things that are often treated as disposable.

Eff-able edited by JP Seabright and George Violet Parker

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This collection of poems, brought to us by Fourteen Poems, is so fresh and powerful. To speak of the sexuality of people with “disabilities” shifts so many boundaries – and in claiming their Queer Sexual identities our poets are also claiming their personhood. Too often the de-sexualising of people with “disabilities” is a key part of their de-humanisation. Allow them sexuality and you allow them power and agency.

It is hard in such a strong collection to highlight particular poems, but I will mention these:

I love men that have it brutal but make it gorgeous by Will Darling which declares love to so many ways of being a man…

When Google returns five million four hundred eighty thousand results for fucking by Cat Chong

Choke Me With My Sunflower Lanyard by Rosamund Taylor it layers up the complexity and the simplicity of lust.