Book Review July: poet seabird island by Sarah Wallis

Reviewed by A.R.Arthur

poet seabird island by Sarah Wallis is a bedazzling collection of poetry coated in a darling salinity that transports the reader to their nearest sanded coast. The reader is made to reflect on aquatic life majestic intertwined with myth and a sense of storytelling that transcends the page and centres the reader at the very core of Wallis authorial intent. Wallis’ intrigue and observations of the coast and its grandiosity give rise to a collection filled with astonishing aqueous poetry that engages the reader with particular gusto.

This is a collection of poetry that is one with the power of nature and oceanic discovery whilst reflecting on journeys varied and many that make these poems wholly unique and lustrous.

Quartz lines wave and scramble across

the deck of scribbled chert, someone’s chaos

theory peeps

from the frothy hagstone,

a scrap of shell, a pinch of seaweed

sand falling through time –

the calm, inevitable, onset of days

like the view from

a porthole on the swell into harbour

your ship come in,

(8)

The aforementioned quote is an excellent example of the stellar storytelling present throughout this collection whilst highlighting a targeted word-economy and sense of diction that is meaningful and without frivolity. A sense of serenity is contrasted with hauntingly elegiac lamentations that dot this collection and provide a robust sense of wonder and authorial strength throughout.

The saints are crying in the wind, can’t you hear them?

Only the cries of the wing borne sing out,

oystercatcher, skylark, plover

and corncrake. This too may be an answer.

The saints are letting their tears fall, a gentle cascade

of green marble, don’t you hear them clatter together?

Only the sound of the surf in the shingle,

and the grey stones clinging

to the beach in the rising tide. This too may be an answer.

(31)

The reader is made to question and wander through these words which act to affirm a sense of targeted narrative development that acts to centre the reader and enforce a certain duality between a sorrow and joy, a mirth and downtrodden reflection that works to add sensational juxtaposition which sustains readability throughout this collection with ease.

As a whole, poet seabird island is a collection of poetry that is meant to be savoured in silence as one sits on sanded shores overlooking waterways arcane and teeming with life often just out of reach. A brilliantly meditative collection!

Buy poet seabird island: here