The Air Year by Caroline Bird

Re-read of this poetry collection. I love Bird’s style of writing - surreal and often very funny with deep pain behind it so the poems feel rooted in an emotional truth. Going back to them was a delight.

• Excellent at finding a theme and developing it to the point of absurdity.
• Free verse with internal rythym. Poems yearning to be read out loud or performed but work on the page as well.
• Not just surreal for the sake of it, captures raw, difficult emotions it’s hard to look directly at. Absurdity makes them more effective.