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Coming now to Andrew’s third collection it is a return to the beginning because pill-box from it was my introduction to his work due to its inclusion in the Forward Poetry collection.
Reading it out of context I had read pill-box as being about the treatment and management of physical illness, particularly HIV/AIDS which in the early days of treatment was a relentless routine of pill popping. The references to grandparents, the acceptance of the pills as a symbol of a decline in health and freedom. But reading it here in sequence it is mental rather than physical health that is the setting, and the relationship with anti-depressants is even more complex. Are the pills keeping you well or somehow stripping you of yourself?
On the opposite page untitled are three lines…
one thing the pills mean is that you rarely cum
your body pushes you to the edge
but has learnt to step back rather than jump
having been with someone who came off anti-depressants during our relationship, this is a side effect that taught me a lot about sex.
The sequence George about his stillborn nephew is beautiful in its grief, raw and tender, the line “no one is sure how we should look after | this sadness...” says so much, echoes of Pádraig Ó Tuama approach to grief and other heartbreaks.
With the sequences Swam, and Garden, and Knotweed in particular the engagement with nature is really rich – this is not some fluffy cloud tweeness, nature here is strong, and offers windows need into our own souls.
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