Poetry review – THE BRIDGE: Pat Edwards admires a collection by Jane Salmons in which the poems seek to make connections with readers’ own experiences
The Bridge
Jane Salmons
Offa’s Press
ISBN 978-1-7393618-5-3
£6.95
The title of this collection evokes ideas of crossing over – perhaps a road, a river, a gorge, or something less tangible, more metaphorical. We rely on bridges, trust them to allow safe passage, to speed our journey and save us having to go around the long way. In her poems, Salmons helps the reader cross passages of time and negotiate the spaces between different generations, using people she knows and even complete strangers.
The book opens with a memory of the poet’s own mother, now departed, which imagines her wedding dress “of lace and satin”. The poet is clearly interested in our connection with the dead; and there are poems here such as ‘Medium’, and many others that conjure ghosts.
It is evident that Salmons has done her research into interesting, dynamic women from around her West Midlands patch. ‘Patience Round’ is about the oldest woman at age 79 to take part in the chain makers’ strike in the 1900s. This poem is a pantoum where quatrains follow a special pattern of repeated lines. The effect is one of emphasis and impact, allowing the poet to stress important facts and emotions, a good choice of form to celebrate the woman herself.
Salmons does form well. Her poem ‘The Leggers’ uses six neat couplets employing enjambement to great effect. She is also good at using colloquial language and phrases such as in ‘Mercy Fisher’.
The poet creates a striking and disturbing picture of an unusual wedding in her poem ‘Black Sheep’. It is obvious something is very wrong,
The engagement ring was cheap. The cake was hastily
made…The service was short. The vicar swallowed his words
And why? Because the newly-weds were cousins. I love that the next poem is called ‘Black Market’ as this shows great awareness of how to order poems in a pleasing manner. This poem continues the dark theme by depicting a farmer lulling a chicken into a false sense of security before despatching her, wrapping “her in string/and brown paper” ready to do a deal. Following on from this comes “darkness all around” in ‘Tree Murder Riddle’ which is inspired by a spooky myth.
The poem that gives this pamphlet its title, ‘The Bridge’, is rather special because it incorporates words found in the diary of the poet’s mum. It recalls such a lovely day out, “everything fragrant and in full bloom”. I believe the layout of the poem resembles a haibun in that it is part prose, part poetry, although not the customary haiku.
Salmons uses further words from her mother’s writing in ‘The Voices’, where she is experimental and includes italics, slashes, white space, even three lines with no spaces at all between the words. It feels like a technique that works to a point, but it does challenge the reader.
There are charming poems about a cleaner who was sent for electroshock therapy, and about early learning through games, reading, wildflowers, and making pastry. Other poems also make warm, nostalgic reference to the TV programmes of old, and beloved shops such as Woolworth’s.
As a former PE Teacher, I found the poem ‘Humiliation’ very disturbing as, sadly, I did recognise the stereotype it features and the all-too-common tendency for schools to be places of great unhappiness before more enlightened times. I also appreciated ‘Swimming Gala’ and ‘Gymnastics Display’ with its “blur/of white aertex and black nylon”.
The poet closes with a poem that uses a quotation from Hamlet as its title, ‘the time is out of joint’ and shows the declining health of a woman who “no longer recognises herself in black and white”. The use of this quotation works well, as do the slashes as punctuation. The latter visually represents the breaking up of time into strange moments, memories, and unfinished thoughts.
Poems in this book carry the reader on an emotional journey through times of joy as well as those of great sadness. Some of the poems feel rather prosaic for my taste, but they still convey relatable memories of the familiar and readers may recognise paths, come across situations and people that at least resemble their own and, therefore, resonate. Overall, Salmons achieves a rare thing – namely poetry that appeals broadly and on many different levels.
Oct 23 2024
London Grip Poetry Review – Jane Salmons
Poetry review – THE BRIDGE: Pat Edwards admires a collection by Jane Salmons in which the poems seek to make connections with readers’ own experiences
The title of this collection evokes ideas of crossing over – perhaps a road, a river, a gorge, or something less tangible, more metaphorical. We rely on bridges, trust them to allow safe passage, to speed our journey and save us having to go around the long way. In her poems, Salmons helps the reader cross passages of time and negotiate the spaces between different generations, using people she knows and even complete strangers.
The book opens with a memory of the poet’s own mother, now departed, which imagines her wedding dress “of lace and satin”. The poet is clearly interested in our connection with the dead; and there are poems here such as ‘Medium’, and many others that conjure ghosts.
It is evident that Salmons has done her research into interesting, dynamic women from around her West Midlands patch. ‘Patience Round’ is about the oldest woman at age 79 to take part in the chain makers’ strike in the 1900s. This poem is a pantoum where quatrains follow a special pattern of repeated lines. The effect is one of emphasis and impact, allowing the poet to stress important facts and emotions, a good choice of form to celebrate the woman herself.
Salmons does form well. Her poem ‘The Leggers’ uses six neat couplets employing enjambement to great effect. She is also good at using colloquial language and phrases such as in ‘Mercy Fisher’.
The poet creates a striking and disturbing picture of an unusual wedding in her poem ‘Black Sheep’. It is obvious something is very wrong,
And why? Because the newly-weds were cousins. I love that the next poem is called ‘Black Market’ as this shows great awareness of how to order poems in a pleasing manner. This poem continues the dark theme by depicting a farmer lulling a chicken into a false sense of security before despatching her, wrapping “her in string/and brown paper” ready to do a deal. Following on from this comes “darkness all around” in ‘Tree Murder Riddle’ which is inspired by a spooky myth.
The poem that gives this pamphlet its title, ‘The Bridge’, is rather special because it incorporates words found in the diary of the poet’s mum. It recalls such a lovely day out, “everything fragrant and in full bloom”. I believe the layout of the poem resembles a haibun in that it is part prose, part poetry, although not the customary haiku.
Salmons uses further words from her mother’s writing in ‘The Voices’, where she is experimental and includes italics, slashes, white space, even three lines with no spaces at all between the words. It feels like a technique that works to a point, but it does challenge the reader.
There are charming poems about a cleaner who was sent for electroshock therapy, and about early learning through games, reading, wildflowers, and making pastry. Other poems also make warm, nostalgic reference to the TV programmes of old, and beloved shops such as Woolworth’s.
As a former PE Teacher, I found the poem ‘Humiliation’ very disturbing as, sadly, I did recognise the stereotype it features and the all-too-common tendency for schools to be places of great unhappiness before more enlightened times. I also appreciated ‘Swimming Gala’ and ‘Gymnastics Display’ with its “blur/of white aertex and black nylon”.
The poet closes with a poem that uses a quotation from Hamlet as its title, ‘the time is out of joint’ and shows the declining health of a woman who “no longer recognises herself in black and white”. The use of this quotation works well, as do the slashes as punctuation. The latter visually represents the breaking up of time into strange moments, memories, and unfinished thoughts.
Poems in this book carry the reader on an emotional journey through times of joy as well as those of great sadness. Some of the poems feel rather prosaic for my taste, but they still convey relatable memories of the familiar and readers may recognise paths, come across situations and people that at least resemble their own and, therefore, resonate. Overall, Salmons achieves a rare thing – namely poetry that appeals broadly and on many different levels.