— Arnie Yasinski knows his difference is noticed when he opens his
mouth to speak in Ireland; he sees how the stasis of Beckett’s ‘Waiting for
Godot’ is everywhere, knows how darkness can be camouflaged, how the
Irish avoid pain by averting their eyes from the abyss.

— ​Alison Hackett’s poems of remembrance, of love, of still-life;
language, people, place and religion pepper her second collection which
sets out from West Cork and takes in Dublin, India, Germany, Beirut,
France and England on the way.

— A medic, Chris Fitzpatrick, finds healing for himself by writing poems
on his phone as the pandemic grips –  rhythm, rhyme, haiku, a list-poem
of what to do when someone can’t breathe (and why you wouldn’t kneel
on their neck), why Lionel Richie keeps sending him emails, reading a
letter from the Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, written to his brother
who is dying.