Two poems by the Scottish poet, Cheryl Follon, are discussed on this podcast. Our regular host Samuel Tongue, with help from the monthly meeting of Friends of the SPL group, goes under the bonnet of the short prose poem 'Netball' and the longer poem 'Dinner' - which can both be found on the Scottish Poetry Library website:

Netball

Dinner

Gerry Cambridge described Cheryl Follon's Bloodaxe collection Santiago (which includes 'Netball') as "idiosyncratic, bright as new paint, at times enigmatic, at times clear as water... unexpected and colourful as contemporary life".

"Delight is clear in this collection (Santiago)" wrote Alison Craig in The Bottle Imp. "It is surprising, fun and funny, colourful and vibrating with energy. Its accessibility is one of the keys to its power; in just a few lines, Follon gets right to the crux. But the real genius for me is the lightness of touch. There is no sense of working through or finding a way. Idea and poem arrive simultaneously on the page. Immaculate."

In the latest edition of our Nothing But The Poem podcast resident host Samuel Tongue - after a meetup of the Friends of the SPL Group - takes an exploratory dive into two poems by Indian poet, Tishani Doshi.

'Doshi’s work is like the music of Shostakovich; it gives no quarter but compels you to listen anyway and sometimes there is a beautiful lyricism to chase away the scary bits… There are words and phrases that will stay with you long after you close the book.’ – Frances Spurrier, Wales Arts Review

"It’s impossible not to cheer for the poet’s third collection, with her reflections on female bodies and violence feeling exceptionally timely" - Sandeep Parmar, The Guardian

The two poems discussed were:

Some Words to the Close and Holy Darkness

Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods