2.5 out of 5 stars

Poetry is often about intimacy, those moments with someone else that will always remain a secret between the people concerned. In this shortlisted collection, Scott is prepared to reveal some of those secrets from his life in this very graphic portrait of gay love. Some of these poems are extremely explicit and his prose feels raw, but they are written by drawing from a deep vein of experience and emotion.

the moon bleeds 

light onto the black ash

every branch

in this dismal canopy

rasps indifference

In these very personal poems, run themes of love and sex and it is these encounters, some of which are occasionally disturbing, that have formed his character. I can’t say the subject matter was particularly to my taste, very much not my usual reading material. However, I do need to read out of my comfort zones every now and again. My favourite poem was health and for me, this showed the potential that Scott has as a poet and the power of his language to explore almost any other subjects though his poems.

Spread the love