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As I write, images and lines from the poems in Second Thoughts are still happily humming inside my head. This anthology is an aptly titled sequel to the very well-received Thoughts like an Ocean, and I found it just as enjoyable and entertaining. It is so agreeable to get away from the gritty, bleak realism and treatment of ‘issues’ which characterises so much of contemporary writing for children – excellent though it often is.
But though this collection could be described as gentle, curl-up-in-a-chair-by-the-fire-reading, or perhaps for bed-time sharing, it is never mere bland, escapist whimsy. The poems can sense-tingle and stimulate the imagination, like Moira Andrew’s ‘Portrait of a Dragon’, which sings with colour and made me itch to start painting and gild his claws/ like shining swords. ‘Waterlands’ by Julie Rainsbury has a lyrical and haunting quality. Sue Moules in ‘Seahorse’, . . . a twist of treble clef, now incarcerated in a gift box, but once in the ocean/ deep in darkness/ beyond our reach, and the powerful sweep of ‘Ringing the Manxies’ (Glenda Beagan) can stir old primeval memories. I remember, very early one dark morning on Ynys Enlli, feeling bewitched by the extraordinary sibilant whistling creaking of the Manx shearwaters returning in their hundreds to their chicks in the deserted rabbit burrows, and thinking incredulously that this was indeed like no other sound in the world.
There is plenty of material here to encourage the reader to think about the world in a new way, or to know that there are others out there who share the same feelings and experiences. Sometimes poems can help to make sense of feelings of guilt in a light-hearted way, as in ‘The Moon’s a Martial Artist’ and ‘What the Wind Did’. Grief and the yawning hole left by a bereavement are explored in Rex Harley’s ‘My Father’. For animal- and nature-lovers, there are gems here. I read Bob Reeves’s ‘Cats’ and chuckled. I felt delicious stirrings of a long-buried first fine careless rapture as I mulled over ‘First Lamb’, ‘Newts’ and ‘Spring Fed’.
Some very funny poems are included too – some to grin over, quietly, like ‘The Creature From Down in the Hall’, (Phil Carradice) which reminded me of the Monster which long ago I used to regularly shoo from under the bed and out through the window before my youngest son would go to sleep. Others are too good to keep to yourself. Imagine the fun of co-yelling:
I’m feeling fantastic, elastic, gymnastic,
Record-break-astic – yes, that’s how I feel!
Or you could beat a challenging rap to
Poetry
Is rhythm,
Poetry
Is the beat,
Poetry
Is the twitch
In your feet…
I especially enjoyed the shape and riddle poems of the last part, which draw on some ancient literary forms, and can still give pleasure to children of all ages. Jenny Fell’s engaging illustrations are especially enhancing.
Again, Nuttall and Hawkins have woven a choir of different voices into a harmonious and satisfying whole. It must have been a hard task to select and order the poems so that they flow so seamlessly, and yet with subtle shades of grouping. ‘Words on the Wind’ was an inspirational introduction and ‘The Very Best Feeling in the World’ an appropriate ending to an immensely pleasing anthology, and I hope it will reach a very wide audience.
Ann Saer
It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.
Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.
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