The Makin’ Green

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The Makin’ Green

Category:	Poetry
Author:	Norman Bissett
Publisher:	Poetry Monthly Press
Price:	£6.50
ISBN:	9781905126996
Pages:	120
Reviewed in issue:	7

This poetry book fits into the stereotype of what non poets feel poetry should be like. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad work by any means, but it just falls into the same category as Pam Ayres or similar. It’s not quite Keats or Sassoon... it’s just middle of the road.

There are descriptive poems of the great outdoors in England and further afield; it features blackbirds quite heavily, and fields/ greens and woods. There are some humourous poems that use the two adverse meanings of nature and being natural, ie. wildlife and nudity. There are also visits into darker poems, but the book does not leave you with a sense of doom and gloom – the moment passes.

I’m not sure why a writer who has travelled the world would want to cram his experience into a poetry collection. All ports of call in one book, and with smaller poems placed two to a page, on either side of the page, it left me confused. A few pages takes you from pole to pole! I would have preferred an experience of each country in chapters, or broken down in some other way.

But if you are happy to experience Norman’s life story and globe trot back and forth, then £6.50 is worth paying. I feel this author has an interesting story to tell... but sadly I couldn’t grasp it within this anthology.

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