NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 CARDINAL COX: TIR NA NOGHAM Atlantean Publishing 38 Pierrot Steps 71 Kursaal Way Southend on Sea Essex SS1 2UY UK 10p email Atlantean Publishing visit the website of Atlantean Publishing        Web design by  This page last updated: 1st September 2009. |
CARDINAL COX: TIR NA NOGHAM | |
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Latest instalment of Atlantean's excellent series of single-poet mini-collections in which a single sheet of A4 is folded in three to make a mini-booklet. Here I must declare an interest as my own OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK was #14 in the series. Ogham was the ancient Irish runic alphabet, Tir-Nan-Og the Celtic Land of the Young, a place beyond space and time — which is just right for the man who is the poet-in-residence at The Broadway Cemetery, Peterborough! Cardinal Cox is well-known in genre poetry circles, and this collection is a welcome addition for aficionados of his work. THE PIPES OF PAN sums up a lot of it: Strange sounds welcome stars Eyes alive inside every shadowThere's a whole clutch of horror films encapsulated in the three lines of NO RELIABLE INFORMATION AT PRESENT and a cosmic breadth hinted at in LOST PAST/FORGOTTEN FUTURE: radio-telescope whispers tree fallen — empty woodIn the dark fantasy and gothic poems of this collection he comes over as a 21st century Walter de la Mare, as in NOT HAUNTED: There's a shadow on the curtain Where no tree casts its shape There's a creaking in the passage Where no foot drops its weightIf you've not discovered The Bards series up to now, you're missing a real treat, and at such a bargain price, they're within everybody's reach. | ||
| reviewer: John Francis Haines. |