On reading the collection Dressing Up by Giles L. Turnbull, published by Cinnamon Press, the first thing you notice is the beautiful use of language. The imagery is beautiful, and colours are used expertly throughout the collection to vividly describe situations and experiences. This kind of skilful writing allows the reader to experience each poem much more intensely, and to enjoy the collection as a whole, to a greater depth.
The poems all appear to be about getting ready, or the perception of getting ready for something. Time also seems to be a running theme throughout, clocks are mentioned repeatedly. The poem ‘Alarm’, which is a stunning start to the collection, contains both themes, and the language around the colour orange captured my imagination immediately.
The bands of wasps / sandwiched recurringly between black / more electric than the shock.
And the last line,
as we set the clocks / to wake us with a morning slap / for juice.
I read ‘Tomorrow’s Dancers’, a poem talking about the future over and over. It starts:
The future / flapping / like a flag in the metaphysical breeze.
This particular poem struck a cord with me, and with each new reading I found and saw something new within it.
The next step / hovering beneath the feet / of tomorrow’s dancers.
So clear and precise, but also inventive and thought provoking. The language is quite stunning.
I love to read powerful lines of poetry. We all know that type of line, the one that stays with you, and if you’re honest, you wish you’d written yourself. Giles spoils us by giving us line after line of wonderful verse.
‘Sharp’, one of my favourites from this collection is a surreal poem with a distinctive rhythm, especially when read aloud.
Underneath the blackness / in every day and every year / leaving me as Pharaoh of a thousand secrets / in the seizure of a collapsing star.
Followed by:
Beyond this blanket shrouded world / smothered sometimes suffocating / leaking light like a dripping tap / through puncture marks that say / this is where it stops.
This is a wonderful collection of verse. It has a strong contemporary style, and the first time I read it, I did find it slightly heavy going, but please stay with it. If you do, I’m sure like I did, you’ll find something amazing that you’ll read over and over again.