THE BONE THAT SANG
(INDIGO DREAMS PUBLISHING)
Booker is like a modern-day Scheherazade, weaving tales that pull you in and transfix. . . LONDON GRIP (Louise Warren)
Throughout this collection, memorable turns of phrase surprise and delight. In ‘View from the Gibralfaro, Malaga’ “burnt ochre crenellations / steam like washed horses”. In ‘Student Clinic’ Mrs Nkumbo’s hat is a “blazing sun / that never sets” and in ‘Baby Blue’ the name Scarlet O’Hara is ingeniously turned into a verb. THE POET MAGAZINE (Neil Leadbeater)
This is a seriously good pamphlet. It has pride of place on my desk. David Pollard
Claire Booker writes lyrical poems with compassion, allowing readers to construct the stories they tell. ‘The Bone That Sang’ is tender, wryly humoured and human in the treatment of its subjects . . . EMMA LEE’S BLOG
Loves a metaphor does Claire Booker, and man-o-man does she know how to wield them. At their best they possess a magnetic force, drawing one into the conceit. Where one follows the meandering of her imagination as she is given to speculating on – a preoccupation with pavements? – or it’s play, stone, a rough sleeper, refuge, tourists, fruit, buildings . . . but best of all Mrs Nkumbo. At times, so wholly does she inhabit her subject that I had to hurry to catch up, only to stop in wonder at where we had arrive. All quite lovely. THE JOURNAL (Sam Smith)
Claire Booker’s lines never fail to engage and the off-kilter, sometimes tragic encounters recorded in her latest collection The Bone That Sang will take from her readers the same intensity that went into their writing. The words are often like fireworks. Sparklers, rockets and Catherine wheels fizz on the page. SOUTH (Rosemary Muncie)
A piece of vertebra found by a herdsman in a forest, in the startling opening (and title poem) of The Bone That Sang, by Claire Booker, becomes, with human ingenuity and craftsmanship, an instrument to be played with human lips, yet lips are a part of a mouth that can proclaim false truths: “that walk and talk/ like real children.” ARTEMIS (Susan Jane Sims)
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Acute social observation brim over in Claire Booker’s ‘The Bone That Sang’. Here is a poet concerned with social injustice and individual hurt . . . THE HIGH WINDOW (Alan Price)
Bold, inventive, metaphorically rich . . . Here is poetry that challenges head and heart, and leaves an astonishing array of ideas and imagery playing in the mind . . . assured choices in form, tone and language never fail to move or pack a punch. DREAMCATCHER (Jane Maker)
I absolutely love these poems. Powerful thoughts and ideas presented in very striking and imaginative ways. Beautiful. Dawn Gorman (The Poetry Place)
Claire Booker’s second pamphlet has an indefatigable spirit . . . The poems reveal a tender humanity and have an unflagging energy. Lisa Kelly
It was lovely to dive into your pamphlet – so many wonderful stories and characters to enjoy! Isabel Kenyon
You have a remarkable way with words. So captivating. If I had to choose just one favourite poem, it would have to be ‘At Risk Child’. That poem speaks to me of 21st century attitudes to ‘want’ and responsbility’ or lack thereof. Rachael Joseph
What shines forth from the poems gathered together in The Bone That Sang is the diversity of their settings and the inclusivity of their author’s narrative world-view. SPHINX (Matthew Paul)
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