Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Poets and Poems: Sarah Thomson and “Before It’s Too Late”


The chapbook Before It’s Too Late by U.K. poet Sarah Thomson is her first collection of poetry (what Americans call chapbooks are called “pamphlets” in the U.K.). Its 20 poems represent a range of poetic forms – pantoum, villanelle, free verse, triolet, and others. Thomson is a poet embarking upon a publication journey, and she’s trying different forms and different ideas. 

If there is a centering them in this collection, it is the idea of impermanence and fragility, whether in relationships, physical location, or a truce during war. In “At the Cinema,” two people sitting in chairs at the beach are likened to indistinct shadows in the sun. In “Lament of a Sperm Whale, the title animal dreams in “the toxic plastic sea.” The man who wants his England back in “In search of England” isn’t quite sure who the enemy is, or whom he wants his England back from. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

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