Poetry review – TRAVELLING LIGHT: Roger Elkin admires a rich collection of travel-inspired poems by Alwyn Marriage
Travelling Light
Alwyn Marriage
The Hedgehog Poetry Press
ISBN 978-1-916830-13-4
107 pages £14.99
This winner of the 2024 The Hedgehog Press “A Proper Poetry Collection Competition” is available from poetry@hedgehogpress.co.uk or directly from www.marriages.me.uk/alwyn/contact
You don’t believe in happy accidents? So, think again! The ‘Foreword’ to Alwyn Marriage’s Travelling Light puts that clearly into focus; this prize-winning collection, Marriage’s 9th, grew out of such an accident, for while acknowledging ‘little of my career has been planned’, she writes that she found herself ‘headhunted’ to become ‘Chief Executive of two international literacy and literature NGOs’, a position which ‘involved extensive travel all over the world – mainly, but not exclusively to the poorer parts’. The result is the 59 poems of this collection which are divided into the continents and world regions she visited throughout the 1990s: Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific, eastern Europe, and concludes with ‘a more general section’ of poems not specific to a particular location.
Of importance is the fact that the collection transcends the accidental consequence of her being ‘headhunted’. In an increasingly negatively-polarised culture it is a delight to welcome poetry that is rich in compassion, inclusivity, and understanding. It would have been tempting to use the poems as travelogues; instead they become fascinating insights that not only acknowledge the writer’s privileged existence, but also celebrate the lives, values and strength of character of those less privileged; so that while the poems explore plenty of ‘travelling’, the ‘light’ is evidenced not only in the need to pack carefully for the six week stays, including internal flights and overnight stops, but also in the illumination which the poems shed on the variety of people, places and cultures that Marriage was obligated to visit. Additionally, what is significant throughout the various poems is the fact that the poems are allowed to speak for themselves – there is no judgemental moralising; any authorial criticism is implicit, rather than openly stated. The poems explore, describe, define, explain: readers are left to their own critical decisions.
And now to the poems! For the ease of the review, I will consider examples in the order of the collection’s sections. In ‘Africa’, (by far the largest section, including poems based on experiences in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zambezi, and Tanzania), Marriage recalls (among other things) the thrills of white-water rafting in Zambezi, an experience effectively conveyed by the short lines, and the stanza break
we’re in,
over and
through
before
there’s time
to shut my
mouth, but
the cry that
escapes
my lips
is not of
terror but
of excitement
and exhilaration.
(‘White Water’)
In contrast, ‘Counting Them’ records in an almost factual manner the necessary horror of counting and crushing cockroaches (27 in all) at an overnight stop in Tanzania. A similarly factual approach, but more emotionally effective, is conveyed in ‘Paying the Price’, in which a family is broken by the need to survive. The ‘elder sister’ is assessed by a visitor who came to ‘test the flesh, / assess her strength and beauty.’ Eventually, ‘the price was paid / and he departed with his goods.’ We, as observers and outsiders, are left to share ‘a father’s shame / a mother’s grief and a lonely child.’
However, there are lighter moments albeit of a bleakly ironic nature. In the six unrhymed tercets of ‘Really Cool Hotel’, Marriage records the commercial enterprise of a hotel in Zimbabwe. While, like other hotels catering for the European traveller, it might have ‘deep pile carpets’, ‘soft white / fluffy bathroom towels’, ‘free coffee and wine’, the Victoria Falls Hotel
is the only one I know
where from time to time
a white-gloved waiter emerges
to pour ice into the swimming pool
to cool it down.
I can’t help wondering if this rather extravagant stratagem encouraged Marriage to take a dip!
The next section – ‘Asia’ – contains poems about her experiences in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China and Hong Kong. In Bangladesh, Marriage reveals her visit to a ‘Women’s Literacy Class’. The cultural, and gender differences are finely detailed in her description of the rural poverty in which the class takes place:
We sat on bare ground, chickens pecking among us,
as gradually the corners of saris covering shy faces
dropped away, along with the darkness of ignorance,
revealing new-found confidence and hope.
At the back, beyond the circle of light, the men stood in a ring
looking nonchalant, gazing at their feet, secretly listening.
Here the spatial gap of the poem’s final line reinforces the cultural uncertainties and gender divisions.
In India, this cultural difference is revealed in the veneration given to the freely-wandering ‘Sacred Cow’, a feature succinctly denoted by the use of feminine pronouns rather than ‘it’, and the religious-parallel given to her keeper:
The man who stands beside her,
Baptist fashion, lifts the amber liquid,
lets it fall to cool her back and flanks,
the hide delighting in his gift.
She knows that she is holy, set apart
and so accepts solicitude and reverence
as her right.
A very different world is explored in her recollections of an experience in Delhi. The poem ‘Pop-Nataraya’ describes the cultural challenge that India is facing as a nine-year-old shoe-shine boy ‘who’s never / owned a pair of shoes himself’ ‘offers to dance’. The dilemma faced by the demands of Indian classical culture versus European popular music is exquisitely described:
For ten minutes without a pause
this mini-god responds to ancient
forms of classical dance, refreshed
by modern pop music: footwork,
hand gesture, fluidity of arm
and head all in harmony.
Cultural conflict of a different kind inhabits Marriage’s world as she lands in China. In ‘Arriving in Nanking’, puzzled by the absence of a greeting-party, she admits
For the first time in my life, literacy
fails me. What Chinese characters
might indicate ‘Exit’, ‘Taxi’ or even ‘bus’?
However, here as elsewhere in her travels, Marriage insists that ‘it’s vital to keep a clear head’. The importance of that behaviour is evidenced in the Latin America section poem ‘Chain Reaction’ which records a rather menacing interchange in Brazil. Walking in ‘the gentle dusk’, Marriage becomes aware of a ‘heavy body tipping me off balance, / foreign fingers clutching round my throat’. She is being attacked: the goal is her gold necklet. What is significant – important even – is the understanding and feeling of acceptance to almost the point of admiration that the author has towards her assailant:
He was skilful, swift and agile,
had work to do
and did it rather well
He didn’t take my camera
or the notebook with the only copy
of the poem I wrote today.
And the exchange rate really wasn’t all that bad:
I lost a favourite necklace,
he gained a broken chain.
Her comments on the skill of her assailant are irrelevant, even complimentary, set against the fact that her poem remains intact and within her creative possession.
Similar delights of event feature in the poems from the ‘Pacific’ section. In ‘Two Swims and Beauty’, Marriage celebrates swimming in the sea off Samoa with her recently-discovered friend Dorothy, ‘the young woman / who ran the desktop publishing’. Whereas the author is aware of the prudery of her swimming costume, Dorothy is
a creature of sea and sun and
golden sand, full of joy, totally
modest and just as totally beautiful.
The ‘Eastern European’ section includes only three poems – concerning experiences within Estonia, Russia, and on the Trans-Siberian Railway. This latter poem records a train journey from Moscow, via Novosibirsk and onwards to Beijing. It is the comforting rhythmic pulse of the train, skifully represented in the 7 times repeated use of ‘Novosibirsk’ that encapsulates the enjoyment of the choice of undertaking the journey by train rather than by Aeroflot:
Glimpses of the Great Wall welcomed
us, inviting the train to weave nearer
then further off then near again. A little
later, domesticity crept towards us as tidy
gardens started to struggle up towards
the tracks, suggesting Willow Pattern
and all too soon, the gentle rattle
of Novosibirsk and the comforting
soft sway of seven days’ train
journey were jolted from us
as we came up against the buffers,
blare and noise of Beijing Station.
Here, as elsewhere throughout the collection, the choice of exact diction to describe and capture exactly what has been witnessed is remarkable – consider for example in these lines, the apposite use of ‘struggle’, ‘jolted’ and ‘blare’.
Similar exactness of the use of precise vocabulary is in evidence in the collection’s final section – ‘General’ which include twelve poems of a non-specific location, including ‘Countries I Never Visited’, and which ends with the rather assertive regret that
although my travels took me
to so many African countries,
I never got the chance to visit Nigeria.
Of even more special significance is the collection’s title-poem, the sonnet, ‘Travelling Light’, which while confirming the difficulties inherent in this work-field, also acknowledges its tremendous benefits. It is so important a poem, that it deserves to be reproduced in full:
As airline passengers, we often face
having to lift our luggage into a high rack,
so try to travel with the lightest case
possible, by being careful what we pack.
Enough clean underclothes to last three days
will generally suffice if washed each night,
plus a blouse, that worn in different ways
looks leisurely by day, formal at night.
Even when we journey to the ends
of human habitation, we soon find
opportunities to make new friends
and learn to trust that most people are kind.
Discovering this not only brings delight,
but gives new meaning to our travelling light.
However, in this section the most enigmatic poem is ‘Revealing My Mantra’. This is enigmatic because it’s structured using the ploy of the Golden Shovel, in which the final words of each line are used to reveal a hidden message. As such, I’m not spilling any beans – you’ll have to buy this rich and fascinating collection to find the answer!.
Go on, buy it. You’ll be amazed at the wonders that are revealed about corners of the world you’ve yet to visit, and the welcome you’ll receive!
Aug 4 2026
London Grip Poetry Review – Alwyn Marriage
Poetry review – TRAVELLING LIGHT: Roger Elkin admires a rich collection of travel-inspired poems by Alwyn Marriage
Travelling Light
Alwyn Marriage
The Hedgehog Poetry Press
ISBN 978-1-916830-13-4
107 pages £14.99
This winner of the 2024 The Hedgehog Press “A Proper Poetry Collection Competition” is available from poetry@hedgehogpress.co.uk or directly from www.marriages.me.uk/alwyn/contact
You don’t believe in happy accidents? So, think again! The ‘Foreword’ to Alwyn Marriage’s Travelling Light puts that clearly into focus; this prize-winning collection, Marriage’s 9th, grew out of such an accident, for while acknowledging ‘little of my career has been planned’, she writes that she found herself ‘headhunted’ to become ‘Chief Executive of two international literacy and literature NGOs’, a position which ‘involved extensive travel all over the world – mainly, but not exclusively to the poorer parts’. The result is the 59 poems of this collection which are divided into the continents and world regions she visited throughout the 1990s: Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific, eastern Europe, and concludes with ‘a more general section’ of poems not specific to a particular location.
Of importance is the fact that the collection transcends the accidental consequence of her being ‘headhunted’. In an increasingly negatively-polarised culture it is a delight to welcome poetry that is rich in compassion, inclusivity, and understanding. It would have been tempting to use the poems as travelogues; instead they become fascinating insights that not only acknowledge the writer’s privileged existence, but also celebrate the lives, values and strength of character of those less privileged; so that while the poems explore plenty of ‘travelling’, the ‘light’ is evidenced not only in the need to pack carefully for the six week stays, including internal flights and overnight stops, but also in the illumination which the poems shed on the variety of people, places and cultures that Marriage was obligated to visit. Additionally, what is significant throughout the various poems is the fact that the poems are allowed to speak for themselves – there is no judgemental moralising; any authorial criticism is implicit, rather than openly stated. The poems explore, describe, define, explain: readers are left to their own critical decisions.
And now to the poems! For the ease of the review, I will consider examples in the order of the collection’s sections. In ‘Africa’, (by far the largest section, including poems based on experiences in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zambezi, and Tanzania), Marriage recalls (among other things) the thrills of white-water rafting in Zambezi, an experience effectively conveyed by the short lines, and the stanza break
we’re in,
over and
through
before
there’s time
to shut my
mouth, but
the cry that
escapes
my lips
is not of
terror but
of excitement
and exhilaration.
(‘White Water’)
In contrast, ‘Counting Them’ records in an almost factual manner the necessary horror of counting and crushing cockroaches (27 in all) at an overnight stop in Tanzania. A similarly factual approach, but more emotionally effective, is conveyed in ‘Paying the Price’, in which a family is broken by the need to survive. The ‘elder sister’ is assessed by a visitor who came to ‘test the flesh, / assess her strength and beauty.’ Eventually, ‘the price was paid / and he departed with his goods.’ We, as observers and outsiders, are left to share ‘a father’s shame / a mother’s grief and a lonely child.’
However, there are lighter moments albeit of a bleakly ironic nature. In the six unrhymed tercets of ‘Really Cool Hotel’, Marriage records the commercial enterprise of a hotel in Zimbabwe. While, like other hotels catering for the European traveller, it might have ‘deep pile carpets’, ‘soft white / fluffy bathroom towels’, ‘free coffee and wine’, the Victoria Falls Hotel
is the only one I know
where from time to time
a white-gloved waiter emerges
to pour ice into the swimming pool
to cool it down.
I can’t help wondering if this rather extravagant stratagem encouraged Marriage to take a dip!
The next section – ‘Asia’ – contains poems about her experiences in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China and Hong Kong. In Bangladesh, Marriage reveals her visit to a ‘Women’s Literacy Class’. The cultural, and gender differences are finely detailed in her description of the rural poverty in which the class takes place:
We sat on bare ground, chickens pecking among us,
as gradually the corners of saris covering shy faces
dropped away, along with the darkness of ignorance,
revealing new-found confidence and hope.
At the back, beyond the circle of light, the men stood in a ring
looking nonchalant, gazing at their feet, secretly listening.
Here the spatial gap of the poem’s final line reinforces the cultural uncertainties and gender divisions.
In India, this cultural difference is revealed in the veneration given to the freely-wandering ‘Sacred Cow’, a feature succinctly denoted by the use of feminine pronouns rather than ‘it’, and the religious-parallel given to her keeper:
The man who stands beside her,
Baptist fashion, lifts the amber liquid,
lets it fall to cool her back and flanks,
the hide delighting in his gift.
She knows that she is holy, set apart
and so accepts solicitude and reverence
as her right.
A very different world is explored in her recollections of an experience in Delhi. The poem ‘Pop-Nataraya’ describes the cultural challenge that India is facing as a nine-year-old shoe-shine boy ‘who’s never / owned a pair of shoes himself’ ‘offers to dance’. The dilemma faced by the demands of Indian classical culture versus European popular music is exquisitely described:
For ten minutes without a pause
this mini-god responds to ancient
forms of classical dance, refreshed
by modern pop music: footwork,
hand gesture, fluidity of arm
and head all in harmony.
Cultural conflict of a different kind inhabits Marriage’s world as she lands in China. In ‘Arriving in Nanking’, puzzled by the absence of a greeting-party, she admits
For the first time in my life, literacy
fails me. What Chinese characters
might indicate ‘Exit’, ‘Taxi’ or even ‘bus’?
However, here as elsewhere in her travels, Marriage insists that ‘it’s vital to keep a clear head’. The importance of that behaviour is evidenced in the Latin America section poem ‘Chain Reaction’ which records a rather menacing interchange in Brazil. Walking in ‘the gentle dusk’, Marriage becomes aware of a ‘heavy body tipping me off balance, / foreign fingers clutching round my throat’. She is being attacked: the goal is her gold necklet. What is significant – important even – is the understanding and feeling of acceptance to almost the point of admiration that the author has towards her assailant:
He was skilful, swift and agile,
had work to do
and did it rather well
He didn’t take my camera
or the notebook with the only copy
of the poem I wrote today.
And the exchange rate really wasn’t all that bad:
I lost a favourite necklace,
he gained a broken chain.
Her comments on the skill of her assailant are irrelevant, even complimentary, set against the fact that her poem remains intact and within her creative possession.
Similar delights of event feature in the poems from the ‘Pacific’ section. In ‘Two Swims and Beauty’, Marriage celebrates swimming in the sea off Samoa with her recently-discovered friend Dorothy, ‘the young woman / who ran the desktop publishing’. Whereas the author is aware of the prudery of her swimming costume, Dorothy is
a creature of sea and sun and
golden sand, full of joy, totally
modest and just as totally beautiful.
The ‘Eastern European’ section includes only three poems – concerning experiences within Estonia, Russia, and on the Trans-Siberian Railway. This latter poem records a train journey from Moscow, via Novosibirsk and onwards to Beijing. It is the comforting rhythmic pulse of the train, skifully represented in the 7 times repeated use of ‘Novosibirsk’ that encapsulates the enjoyment of the choice of undertaking the journey by train rather than by Aeroflot:
Glimpses of the Great Wall welcomed
us, inviting the train to weave nearer
then further off then near again. A little
later, domesticity crept towards us as tidy
gardens started to struggle up towards
the tracks, suggesting Willow Pattern
and all too soon, the gentle rattle
of Novosibirsk and the comforting
soft sway of seven days’ train
journey were jolted from us
as we came up against the buffers,
blare and noise of Beijing Station.
Here, as elsewhere throughout the collection, the choice of exact diction to describe and capture exactly what has been witnessed is remarkable – consider for example in these lines, the apposite use of ‘struggle’, ‘jolted’ and ‘blare’.
Similar exactness of the use of precise vocabulary is in evidence in the collection’s final section – ‘General’ which include twelve poems of a non-specific location, including ‘Countries I Never Visited’, and which ends with the rather assertive regret that
although my travels took me
to so many African countries,
I never got the chance to visit Nigeria.
Of even more special significance is the collection’s title-poem, the sonnet, ‘Travelling Light’, which while confirming the difficulties inherent in this work-field, also acknowledges its tremendous benefits. It is so important a poem, that it deserves to be reproduced in full:
As airline passengers, we often face
having to lift our luggage into a high rack,
so try to travel with the lightest case
possible, by being careful what we pack.
Enough clean underclothes to last three days
will generally suffice if washed each night,
plus a blouse, that worn in different ways
looks leisurely by day, formal at night.
Even when we journey to the ends
of human habitation, we soon find
opportunities to make new friends
and learn to trust that most people are kind.
Discovering this not only brings delight,
but gives new meaning to our travelling light.
However, in this section the most enigmatic poem is ‘Revealing My Mantra’. This is enigmatic because it’s structured using the ploy of the Golden Shovel, in which the final words of each line are used to reveal a hidden message. As such, I’m not spilling any beans – you’ll have to buy this rich and fascinating collection to find the answer!.
Go on, buy it. You’ll be amazed at the wonders that are revealed about corners of the world you’ve yet to visit, and the welcome you’ll receive!