5th January, 2018

Friday Poem – ‘Giraffe’, Bryony Littlefair

Our Friday Poem this week is the title poem from Bryony Littlefair’s Mslexia Prize-winning debut pamphlet, Giraffe.

Poems need head, heart, and soul but this particular pamphlet has an extra ingredient – a feminist kick. There is a good deal of wit on display, but also a wonderful humanity. There are also other novelistic qualities: clarity of language and the use of realism, a feeling for plot and incident, an eye and ear for character. The author indicates emotion and relationships in a myriad of subtle ways: heartbreak can be summarised by one glance at the ‘Lido’. Love can be inferred by the tender description of someone from the back, as they are walking away.
Giraffe, the title and a euphemism for happiness, is a beguiling, beautiful and entertaining debut pamphlet of poems.

Giraffe is half price in the Seren January Sale until 11 January: £2.50

Join our free Book Club for 20% off every book you buy from us after the sale ends.