Poetry review – A DRESS WITH DEEP POCKETS: Pat Edwards enjoys a slim but companionable collection by Jen Feroze
A dress with deep pockets
Jen Feroze
Smith Doorstop Books
ISBN 978-1-914914-93-5
£6
This is a fine, little gem of a book, winner of the Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Prize selected by Jane Clarke. With just twenty poems, it demands only a little of the reader’s time and yet it feels very warm and as if it has no pretensions, no desire to make loud statements or change the world. Nevertheless, it holds and nurtures some lovely observations about friendship and offers a wonderful sense of hope.
Each poem is an evocation of a friend. Some of them have remained in the poet’s life, others who are simply remembered and treasured as being a part of earlier times. Feroze opens with ‘Hare Girl’, a shy and graceful friend who was looked at by boys “from across the room”, but who was capable of punching “a rugby player/square in the mouth”. This was a pal to camp out with, very much at one with nature, eventually “disappearing into the trees”.
I love the way the next poem picks up on that notion of punching. ‘Boxing Day Swimmers’ delights in the poet hoping she will always be like these women who are up for the challenge:
show me how to punch the cold
right in the centre of its stupid face
Another nice touch in terms of continuity in the ordering of poems is Feroze’s reference to different meanings of the word “curls”. In her poem about a ‘newly single friend’, this comes in the form of “lifting golden curls from the butter dish”, whilst in ‘Anne in December’ her friend who does “pissed off so well” is one with “hair curling at [her] shoulders”. Yet another poem, ‘Look at you’, opens with “your loose curls and self-assured style.” There’s something rather feminine about this tendency to notice such things, something women are perhaps programmed to do and maybe can’t help obsessing with.
There are also rather amusing echoes involving breakfast cereals! In Feroze’s charming golden shovel based on a Joni Mitchell song it’s “cheerios”, whilst in the poem where she imagines inviting her grown-up daughter for dinner it’s “coco pops”. These might, on the face of it, seem like daft things to notice and draw your attention to, but I would argue that these are small details which add authenticity and love to her recollections.
The longest poem in this pamphlet is ‘Gorge’, in the form of a sestina. I sense the geology of how limestone gorges and cliffs are formed as metaphor for how we are formed as people. The poem cites some of those moments that are rites of passage, concluding with :
we made something of ourselves, made it,
out of that shadowed small town we came from
This is a pivotal poem spanning the centre pages of the book, making a strong statement about the value of important experiences shared with beloved friends who have all grown up together.
Other poems in the book consider individuals who are not actually known personally by the writer. In one of these, Feroze imagines being friends with the food critic Grace Dent. This is a fabulously playful poem in which Grace takes her “to places with table cloths” while the poet is more used to “Big Macs,/the best kebab in London”. The reader can totally picture the scene where she makes “Findus Crispy Pancakes at 2am” and makes Grace Dent cry!
In the following poem, ‘While waiting for the test results’, the two women featured are also not known to the poet, but she recognises their firm bond:
Laughing in tongues, fluent
in friendship in the face of it all
The book races to its conclusion in a flurry of friendships. There are friends the poet wants to bake or cook for. It can be anything really, just as long as they are together and able to talk. Feroze begs her companion to
Come downstairs.
Eat too much with me
There are old teachers, one remembered for her “legendary” temper and hopeful laughter. There are spa days, flea markets, friends with children “mapping [their] collective middle age”, and the brief but telling line “let’s be ok”. It’s not until the final poem that we find where the deep pockets of the pamphlet title come from. Four friends are outside sitting around the fire pit while their children sleep upstairs. Feroze likens this safe, relaxed, and heart-warming scene to:
a jersey dress.
Comfortable and smart
with deep pockets
I guess this sums up the whole feeling of the writing which celebrates the importance of having lifelong friends, a supportive network, particularly a circle of women who are there for one another. What a refreshing collection of poems to lift the spirits, a light in pretty dark times, and so well curated and presented.
Sep 26 2025
London Grip Poetry Review – Jen Feroze
Poetry review – A DRESS WITH DEEP POCKETS: Pat Edwards enjoys a slim but companionable collection by Jen Feroze
This is a fine, little gem of a book, winner of the Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Prize selected by Jane Clarke. With just twenty poems, it demands only a little of the reader’s time and yet it feels very warm and as if it has no pretensions, no desire to make loud statements or change the world. Nevertheless, it holds and nurtures some lovely observations about friendship and offers a wonderful sense of hope.
Each poem is an evocation of a friend. Some of them have remained in the poet’s life, others who are simply remembered and treasured as being a part of earlier times. Feroze opens with ‘Hare Girl’, a shy and graceful friend who was looked at by boys “from across the room”, but who was capable of punching “a rugby player/square in the mouth”. This was a pal to camp out with, very much at one with nature, eventually “disappearing into the trees”.
I love the way the next poem picks up on that notion of punching. ‘Boxing Day Swimmers’ delights in the poet hoping she will always be like these women who are up for the challenge:
Another nice touch in terms of continuity in the ordering of poems is Feroze’s reference to different meanings of the word “curls”. In her poem about a ‘newly single friend’, this comes in the form of “lifting golden curls from the butter dish”, whilst in ‘Anne in December’ her friend who does “pissed off so well” is one with “hair curling at [her] shoulders”. Yet another poem, ‘Look at you’, opens with “your loose curls and self-assured style.” There’s something rather feminine about this tendency to notice such things, something women are perhaps programmed to do and maybe can’t help obsessing with.
There are also rather amusing echoes involving breakfast cereals! In Feroze’s charming golden shovel based on a Joni Mitchell song it’s “cheerios”, whilst in the poem where she imagines inviting her grown-up daughter for dinner it’s “coco pops”. These might, on the face of it, seem like daft things to notice and draw your attention to, but I would argue that these are small details which add authenticity and love to her recollections.
The longest poem in this pamphlet is ‘Gorge’, in the form of a sestina. I sense the geology of how limestone gorges and cliffs are formed as metaphor for how we are formed as people. The poem cites some of those moments that are rites of passage, concluding with :
This is a pivotal poem spanning the centre pages of the book, making a strong statement about the value of important experiences shared with beloved friends who have all grown up together.
Other poems in the book consider individuals who are not actually known personally by the writer. In one of these, Feroze imagines being friends with the food critic Grace Dent. This is a fabulously playful poem in which Grace takes her “to places with table cloths” while the poet is more used to “Big Macs,/the best kebab in London”. The reader can totally picture the scene where she makes “Findus Crispy Pancakes at 2am” and makes Grace Dent cry!
In the following poem, ‘While waiting for the test results’, the two women featured are also not known to the poet, but she recognises their firm bond:
The book races to its conclusion in a flurry of friendships. There are friends the poet wants to bake or cook for. It can be anything really, just as long as they are together and able to talk. Feroze begs her companion to
There are old teachers, one remembered for her “legendary” temper and hopeful laughter. There are spa days, flea markets, friends with children “mapping [their] collective middle age”, and the brief but telling line “let’s be ok”. It’s not until the final poem that we find where the deep pockets of the pamphlet title come from. Four friends are outside sitting around the fire pit while their children sleep upstairs. Feroze likens this safe, relaxed, and heart-warming scene to:
I guess this sums up the whole feeling of the writing which celebrates the importance of having lifelong friends, a supportive network, particularly a circle of women who are there for one another. What a refreshing collection of poems to lift the spirits, a light in pretty dark times, and so well curated and presented.