Poetry Basket Review

Hello, Poetry Lovers Welcome back to the Poetry Basket Review.

Now, you may have seen that I’ve featured the terrific poet, Trisha Broomfield a few times. So I think it’s a natural progression to actually review her latest collection When Peter Sellers Came to Tea. This is Trisha’s third book, and her previous collections are The Equator & Other Disappointments, and Husbands for Breakfast. These are all worth a read. Wonderful pieces – detailed, nostalgic and so very poignant. A real insight into life and human situations.

Read on for a cracking review

When Peter Sellers Came to tea

By Trisha Broomfield

This exquisite collection of 40 detailed poems, makes compulsive reading. Stirring our hearts in its nostalgia, humour and pathos. Yet, despite nostalgic overtones, there are still issues that are as razor sharp today.

A third collection from prolific poet Trisha Broomfield, and her work just gets stronger. We welcome these poems, as so many of us have lived through these situations, past and present.

We are embraced with Quaking in Queensland that deals with the trauma of an earthquake, yet it is still taken on in family spirit and humour. Another classic family situation is Sizzling Fillets when the Hyphen-Jones pay a visit. Haven’t we all cowed under such scrutiny from illustrious company? And haven’t we also fallen back on our old friend Fray Bentos?!

Innards and Gizzards strikes a very strong chord, I hankered for that same Mary Quant lipstick – (they were stunning, weren’t they?), only to be thwarted and finally turning to the Rimmel section.

Cinematic Experience takes us in a similar vein and makes us taste that very weak Kia-Ora once again. Funny how that drink was almost compulsory, despite the impractical straws. What’s more, this piece shares the memory of the rough romance and seedy glamour of that institution.

The title poem When Peter Sellers Came to Tea is a romantic recollection and an account of meeting the man himself. It also brings comfort in later life. Beautiful piece conveying what might have been.

A personal favourite is A Good Brew with its touching and tender account of that immortal drink – tea, and the situations it has got us through. The poet illustrates so well that with every family drama and tumult, there is a cup of tea brewing. So much to the point that it’s even used for a final resting place. Such a poignant ending.

Your Yellow Shirt takes us to the significance of a faded old photo, and those treasures and pain that they can hold for us. Not to mention having to wait for the image to come back to you in the first place! Beautifully done.

The heart wrenching You Are Invited stays with us. The strong detail and emotion will make the most cynical reader stir with this moving and painful account.

The wistful Happy Untogether – what might have been? Or simply this is our situation? The stoicism of the couple’s lot is moving. Whatever form the reader will like to take it, it’s says so very much between the text.

Another personal favourite is Golden Shoes, especially the reference to Pond’s Cold Cream. And who doesn’t have memories of their mother going out for the evening, kissing you goodnight while you’re in bed? Trisha puts over that wonderment and forlornness. Such faded glamorous memories.

Another defining poem that I love is Princess, with vivid material and descriptions of a certain era and topped with the splendid Hawkwind. This is a dream piece.

The amazing Magic with the loneliness of a stripper, scores many points with its sordid atmospheres and human nature, and the mention of the fantastic Billy Swann. Excellent!

That Party carries a sensual wistfulness and former longing, and Having Kittens so intricately details a bedsit in Bethnal Green and a very significant visitor. A hue of emotions hangs over every word. Creping is disturbing in that it gives us the ultimate question while acknowledging how time and age will be quite brutal, and will take over in a blink of an eye. How it can truly creep up on us. Making up the Hours on this similar vein is so tangible and bitter-sweet.

The End of the Book is such a fitting climax and goes at a great pace, in a collection full of these same virtues. The surreal telling of the story was a book in itself.

I highly recommend this collection, and word has it that Trisha Broomfield will be publishing again soon. I can hardly wait!