The Blue Coat

Synopsis

A Wind That Only The Widest Gardens Can Hold. A Lipstick Stain On A Poem. A Bee Released – With Recourse To A Letter From The Inland Revenue Department. A Grey Sky Like A Governess, A Mother Dressed By Her Two-year-old Son, A Flurry Of Leaves Behind A Tram. In The Blue Coat, Elizabeth Smither Examines The Quotidian And The Quirky For Resonance, For Contemplation, For Verve. Here ‘poetry Has A Place Among Other Bodies’, But Also In Enclosed Gardens, In Chinese Restaurants, In Margins And In Memory – ‘sometimes Open And Hospitable, Sometimes Secret, Behind Dark Hedges’. Whimsical And Tender, This Latest Collection Demonstrates Smither’s Talent For Illuminating The Poetry In The Everyday – An Out-of-season Daffodil, A Chipped Limoges Plate. She Is A Master Of The Unfolding Poem, In Lines That Take You From A Single Image To The Cusp Of Something Larger. At Times Meditative, At Times Playful, Even Slightly Subversive, This Collection Impresses With A Surety Of Word, A Deft Touch And A Polished Harmony. --publisher's Information. Black Labradors -- Leaf Flurry Tram -- Blossoms, Marshmallows -- The Chipped Limoges Plate -- When To Visit A Cemetery -- Governess Sky -- St Frances Of Rome, Patroness Of Car Drivers -- How To Release A Bee -- The Eye Is Badly Designed -- Restaurant, Stars -- The Nurses Are Coming -- The Young Women At The Station -- Babies In The Gallery -- The Wedding Tree -- The Underside Of The Miniature Plane Tree -- Old Lemon Tree -- Rose Thirds -- Tazetta Daffodils In Midwinter -- Grass -- High Wind In The Garden -- Fountain -- Calf Weeding -- Practising Scales -- How Music Is Made -- Stained-glass Window Seen From The Rear -- Two Adorable Things About Mozart -- Virginia: Gardening With Transistor -- The Wedding Lawn -- Tonia Looks At Her Hands -- Amy Brings The Thesaurus -- Intensive Reading With Diana -- All Saints' And The Day Of An Operation -- Last Sister -- Dying -- Credo -- Last Week Of A Life -- Merci D'exister: A French Lesson -- Tony Hoagland Farewells The Poets -- Lipstick Stain On A Poem -- Reading Maxine Kumin -- The Marking Of The Great Gatsby -- Meeting With Two Fans -- Plaits -- The Blue Coat -- Engageantes = Detachable Sleeves -- The Bra Fitting -- Dressing In Nelson Street, King's Lynn -- Cole Dresses His Mother -- The Birth Dressing Gown -- Sa Taille Svelte De Jeune Fille -- Fatherhood -- Ruby's Heirloom Dress -- Birthmark -- The Distraction From Harm -- For Ruby -- Dickens And My Father -- Driving With My Mother -- My Mother's Fingernails -- Gargoyles -- Signing The Will -- Blessing The House For Departure. Elizabeth Smither.