I am both delighted and honoured to be a part of the blog tour for Yield, the third collection of poems from local poet and author Claire Dyer.
Three definitions of the word Yield give meaning to the odyssey undergone in Claire Dyer’s third collection: a journey which sees a son become a daughter, and a mother a poet for both of them. Charting these transitions, the poems take us through territories known and familiar – landscapes of childhood, family and home – into further regions where inner lives alter, outer ones are reimagined.
Whether evoking clinic visits, throwing away old boyhood clothes, grieving over what’s lost, these honest and unashamed poems build to celebrate that place at the heart of motherhood where gender is no differentiator and love the gain.
Crikey … Yield ... where do I begin? In Yield Claire has taken me through every emotion, including some I didn't know. Claire has written so beautifully about something so incredibly personal with real honesty and emotion.
The poem I most related to was "Clinic II" with the heart wrenching words
If I'd been braver, wiser,
kinder, I'd have given her
enough for a hotel, given him
a hot meal, hope, a hug
which is something every mother would do.
It seems an age ago that I first read The Affair and some time later I reviewed The Last Day. I am sure I am not alone in saying that The Last Day is a book that will stay with you forever as indeed Yield is. I love everything Claire has written, she could write a recipe for Trifle, which I detest, and I would be mesmerised.
Thank you to Two Rivers Press for inviting me to take part in the tour and for sending me a copy of the book in return for my honest review. You can get your copy here.
