Book Review: A writer's thoughts on other writers

 Rainbow's Red - Poetry by Lily Lawson

Lily Lawson has a less jaded view of the world than me. This is a compliment. This collection of poems is deeply uplifting, soothing, and likely to appeal to a wide range of readers. 

As others have said, her work often reminds me of Blake’s Songs of Innocence, particularly in those poems in which she personifies emotions like love and hate:

 

Hate’s afflicted admirers

Keen to ingratiate themselves

Bow and scrape at its [love’s] feet.  [from ‘Hate vs Love’]

 

When the first sign of light breaking

Takes the darkness from my sight,

The dawn of early promise

Shines in the blackened night.  [from ‘Sunrise’]

 

There is a refreshing simplicity which masks a vein of complexity in her work. She cleverly slips much more profound sentiments into poems which start out seeming to be more obvious and straightforward.  This is impressive and exciting, though the early poems in this collection struck me as sometimes a little too simplistic – ‘Complexities of Human Existence’, for instance, was simply a list of continuous verbs: ‘Questioning, doubting,/growing, learning,/’ etc. I found this an interesting experiment but ultimately it seemed to lack that cathartic moment of insight that the best of these poems provide. It was descriptive rather than incisive. Yet, even here, Lily shows she has the courage to try new styles, new methods of expression. And as I read through the poems, I found myself becoming increasingly captivated.

In later poems, she comes into her own, finding her feet with flair and confidence. For example, her use of extended imagery in poems like ‘Isolation’ is effective and astute:

 

Falling into the deep dark pit,

I reach for the safety rope.

 

It’s cut with a knife.  [from ‘Isolation’]

 

              I feel that this collection represents a leap forward in Lily’s ongoing development as a poet. I can see a real maturity emerging here – her images are more complex, original and unexpected than I’ve seen in earlier poems, her topics weightier and more philosophical, her range of styles more varied. The rhyming poems have a more assured grasp of rhythm and a more ambitious choice of rhymes, and she is prepared to experiment with new forms and methods of expression. The collection contains poems about love in all its guises, and includes poems about music, refugees, family, writing itself. It is at its best in those poems which express the mettle required to simply continue living and thriving in the face of adversity.

              The most joyful aspect of this collection is that Lily’s personality imbues every poem with its characteristic warmth, humour, maturity and compassion. I am glad that I know her, and her writing makes me feel optimistic.  It is a drop of calmness and positivity in an often difficult and frightening world.

Rating:    **** [recommended]