A volume of poetry by the poet and filmaker Kate Bingham. The poems are evocative, glancing, playful and engaged: this collection sings with Bingham's keen intelligence and quietly subversive sense of humour.

Cyfrol o gerddi o waith Kate Bingham, yr awdures o Lundain. Mae'r cerddi yn rhai atgofus a chwareus. Mae'r canu yn un treiddgar a galluog ac yn cyfleu hiwmor y bardd.

This is the second collection of poems by an approachable, humorous, humane poet whose work is generally concerned with widely shared experience – the rubs and comforts of family life – but whose comments make us think twice or realise the experience more thoroughly.

Her language appears conversational and the forms free. Rhymes are used but are unobtrusive – as in ‘Breath’ and ‘Paradise’. Her use of a group of repeated end words, as in ‘Diamonds’ or ‘Monogamy’, gives us a feel of concentration, even obsession, while the lines seem casual. The surrealism of ‘The Lion’ and ‘In the Birchwood’ remind me of some of Gwyneth Lewis’s more quirky poems and there is a mixture of humour and menace in ‘Return’, ‘Epilogue’ and ‘The Chronicles of the Abbess’.

The title tells us that Bingham's world is not cosy or safe. Domestic love gives hostages to fortune and this is perhaps most wryly encapsulated in ‘Snow in May’. However, the poems do spring from very secure affection. I love the jokey tenderness of ‘Divorce’ and the deep, precisely expressed emotion of ‘6th of December 1998’ for her new-born daughter. Small events like a toddler's exploration of a sandpit or a husband's irritation at a delayed journey are opened out to other dimensions but with a very light touch.

At the first reading of this book not much may seem to be happening but it really repays further acquaintance.

Caroline Clark

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement 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 ganiatad Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.