Some writers (actors, musicians, artists) say reviews don’t matter. They never bother to look because what’s important is the work and not being deflected from that. But a review is posted today that understands not only my poetry but my life so deeply and sensitively that I am moved to tears.

London Grip has posted Stephen Claughton’s wonderful review of Six-Count Jive here.  Enjoy!

You can find other reviews of my writing here.

Fancy getting hold of a copy to see for yourself? This link will help you.

A couple of thoughts, by the way:

Is each page of Six-Count Jive a single poem? The sequence consists of 93 little stanzas of seventeen syllables each. Mostly they’re grouped three to each page, until the last page where there are four. This was purely by chance. While my publisher Dennis Greig and I were putting the proofs together earlier this year, he started off putting six to a page – in deference to the title, he said, but I suspect he was trying to save paper too. I thought that these intense little pieces needed more space to breathe and managed to persuade him that three on a page would work better. There’s a place in my heart where I would love to see a copy where each 17 has its own page 🙂

Claughton mentions a note in Bittersweet Seventeens. This beautiful, little note, called The Ginger Jar, explains haiku and whether or not my seventeens fit the genre. Some readers have assumed that I wrote it but it was by Dennis, my publisher. At the time, I tried to persuade him to take the credit but he’s too modest and left it anonymous.

Happy reading!