A review by casparb
The Tree House by Kathleen Jamie

My first Kathleen and glad I'm here it's a collection which I think ought to be read slowly poem to poem, not so much as pauses, but such that each poem ought to be read carefully and deliberately. For the voice. Enjoy her Scots too. Each one deserves the time and no real wrongfooting here but definitely some stronger than others and her work with Hölderlin in this? very nice. It's a nature collection it's the world she romps through but I had to take a photo of Buddleia (the title of which of course reminds me of Will Harris' Buddleia not Buddha yes I know it does exist beyond poetry) which knocked me all the way out

The Buddleia

When I pause to consider
a god, or creation unfolding
in front of my eyes -
is this my lot? Always
brought back to the same
grove of statues in ill-
fitting clothes: my suddenly
elderly parents, their broken-down
Hoover; or my quarrelling kids?

Come evening, it's almost too late
to walk in the garden, and try,
once again, to retire the masculine
God of my youth
by evoking instead the divine
in the lupins, or foxgloves, or self-
seeded buddleia,
whose heavy horns flush as they
open to flower, and draw
these bumbling, well-meaning bees
which remind me again,
of my father ... whom, Christ,
I've forgotten to call.



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