No Fear No Shame
By Alice Denny
This new collection of poems from Alice Denny, like herself, is slim but packs a punch. There is an essential contradiction in all Denny’s poems; like all poets she’s both startlingly intimate and ruthlessness private, exposing and hiding, showing and telling, letting us feel the throb of blood in her veins, the skipped heartbeats, see the flash of metaphor as it crosses her mind, feel the tear as it slides down her cheek and the shock of uncompromising unconditional love where there should be bitterness, anger or despair.
Denny speaks of hope, O she sings the body electric! she is multitudes, shows us the quiet firm steps of doing daily struggle and although sophisticated in the untangling and unknotting of the gender binary restrictions of the English language she slyly brings her authentic British voice out into the silence caused by her bold fearless challenging.
Her humour, humility and honestly is almost as startling as her rhyming and also as simple. These poems are orphans, clarions, warnings, guidebooks and tattoo’s of experience. Denny who is from Hastings brings with her that combination of soft marking chalk and unyielding sparking flint that underlays and marks out the ancient Sussex landscape and port.
From her safe harbour of words we set sail across a sea of possibility, in full flood, with our nets cast wide for experience and our sails full of love. With Captain Denny navigating we have no fear, our journey is not to be dull.
For more information or to buy the book try City Books, Western Road in Hove or visit Alice Denny’s website here:
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