TSUMEGO DAYS

 

Spurred on by the inclusion of his poetry in the prestigious ‘morphrog’ offshoot of Frogmore Press, this collection incorporates two ‘books’: Tsumego is the Japanese game of Go. Perhaps more than any other game it is about Life and Death. Some of these poems are autobiographical, some ‘voice and character’ others more objective, like The Old Guitarist which examines the subject and the artist in Picasso’s painting of the same name. Days begins by looking at the whole week, the origins of the names of the days, and then reflects on the personal meanings we may attach to each day. Sometimes it’s a colour, sometimes a feeling, sometimes just a wry response to a spelling.