- Paperback: 72 pages
- Publisher: Cultured Llama; 1st edition (22 July 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0956892108
- ISBN-13: 978-0956892102
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 0.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,487,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
strange fruits is a poetry collection by Kent writer, Maria McCarthy.
Maria is a poet of remarkable skill, whose work offers surprising glimpses into our 21st-century lives - the `strange fruits' of our civilisation or lack of it.
Shot through with meditations on the past and her heritage as `an Irish girl, an English woman', it includes poems reflecting on her urban life in a Medway town and as a rural resident in Swale.
She writes, and occasionally teaches creative writing, in a shed at the end of her garden. Her website is medwaymaria.co.uk
Maria is a poet of remarkable skill, whose work offers surprising glimpses into our 21st-century lives - the `strange fruits' of our civilisation or lack of it.
Shot through with meditations on the past and her heritage as `an Irish girl, an English woman', it includes poems reflecting on her urban life in a Medway town and as a rural resident in Swale.
She writes, and occasionally teaches creative writing, in a shed at the end of her garden. Her website is medwaymaria.co.uk
From the Publisher
strange fruits is the fourth project from WordAid, a collective of poets dedicated to raising money for charity. It is published to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, the charity that helped her friend Karen McAndrew in the last weeks of her life.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
If you only read one poem this year, treat yourself to the intoxicating tale told in 'Lager Saga', a poem which expertly explores the unwelcome exploits of an inebriated young man making his presence felt on a rail replacement bus service. Such transportation is painful enough, especially when you know if the trains had been running you would have been home ages ago, and Maria beautifully captures the passengers' awkward embarrassment and understated annoyance at the young man's over-reaction: "Your railing makes us more impervious to your complaints...Why makes such a fuss?"
'Lager Saga' will more than whet your appetite for this collection of poems, which hold a mirror up to the beautiful yet often harsh truth of 21st century living. 'After the fire at Matalan' reveals the reality of long weekends: "bank holiday shoppers deprived of DIY and carpets", while 'First Supper' invokes memories of culinary efforts best forgotten with the killer last line: "Tip food in bin".
Having trashed my teeth in my 20s thanks to an over-enthusiastic sugar overload, I find 'Dentists - a sequence' almost impossible to read. As I sit here, having just returned from having a misbehaving molar extracted, wad of tissue in my mouth, I find comfort in learning the protagonist in 'Toffee' was also "a frequent flier in the dentist's chair". I also take solace from the fact I was spared, unlike the poor patient in 'Extractions', two hours of tooth-related tugging; how I can relate to the sentiment that "next time I begged for general anaesthesia". As well as warnings on cigarette packets, the inside of such mouths - and the financial cost of such work - should perhaps appear on sweet wrappers.
As well as finding much to enjoy in these poems, you will also be making a difference as the proceeds from 'strange fruits' are going to an amazing cause, Macmillan Cancer Support. This charity helped Maria's friend Karen McAndrew and her family in the closing weeks of her life and this book will help peel back the emotional layers found in our everyday existences.
'Lager Saga' will more than whet your appetite for this collection of poems, which hold a mirror up to the beautiful yet often harsh truth of 21st century living. 'After the fire at Matalan' reveals the reality of long weekends: "bank holiday shoppers deprived of DIY and carpets", while 'First Supper' invokes memories of culinary efforts best forgotten with the killer last line: "Tip food in bin".
Having trashed my teeth in my 20s thanks to an over-enthusiastic sugar overload, I find 'Dentists - a sequence' almost impossible to read. As I sit here, having just returned from having a misbehaving molar extracted, wad of tissue in my mouth, I find comfort in learning the protagonist in 'Toffee' was also "a frequent flier in the dentist's chair". I also take solace from the fact I was spared, unlike the poor patient in 'Extractions', two hours of tooth-related tugging; how I can relate to the sentiment that "next time I begged for general anaesthesia". As well as warnings on cigarette packets, the inside of such mouths - and the financial cost of such work - should perhaps appear on sweet wrappers.
As well as finding much to enjoy in these poems, you will also be making a difference as the proceeds from 'strange fruits' are going to an amazing cause, Macmillan Cancer Support. This charity helped Maria's friend Karen McAndrew and her family in the closing weeks of her life and this book will help peel back the emotional layers found in our everyday existences.
Format:Paperback
This is an amazing eclectic collection of poems reflecting life in all its many guises, from someone who has obviously observed and experienced the vagaries that this world can sometimes throw at us.
Great to dip into from time to time.
Great to dip into from time to time.
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