Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

Thankfully my husband reads book reviews in The London Times or I’d have missed this pamphlet (aka chapbook in the U.S.). It holds only 19 poems, few more than one page, but each packs a big surprise. You might guess as much from the title. The tone is conversational, but the word choice is not. Wetton smacks you with some of the most surprising metaphors and similes ever written. She also sprinkles unpleasant situations, like applying for a bank loan, with wry wit.

There are lots of ways one might describe something as squeaky clean without falling into that cliché, but I’d never have come up with this:

“I like a mopped floor gleaming
so new you can’t walk on it

the smell of baking and Ajax that says
job done, the hours are hospital cornered.”
(from “Bident”)

“The hours are hospital cornered” – wow.

She ends “Family Visit” with

“Candy-floss fingerprints
all over my glassy insides.”

My favorite is a longer, two-page poem. She uses length wisely, as the increasingly fussy detail captured the obsession of a hoarder in “The Archivist House.” He cannot stop himself from itemizing everything in his life, from “Useful Objects Found in the Street, New Foods Tasted” to “Women Not Spoken To” and “Unsuccessful Job Interviews.”

In this link shows "The Archivist's House" in its entirety with Wetton's discussion of her work process:
https://poetryschool.com/how-i-did-it...

The title alone grabbed me. I think I shall have to check this one out.

I'd have bought it for the title, too. Glad I tempted you.