Contemplation of Roses by Annest Gwilym: A Review by Ewan Lawrie

Contemplation of Roses

I am very pleased to have been asked to write a review of long-time ABCTales member, Annest Gwilym’s latest poetry collection. 

Part I : is an almanac, with each poem representing a month of the year, running from April to March. Naturally, the first poem in this part is Spring: a vivid and colourful poem, split into two quatrains showing us what Spring isn’t, followed by an eight-line stanza of blank verse telling us what it is. Bravo.  

There is more striking imagery in The Lilac Tree, in which 

"the wind feathers the clouds."
    

Readers of a certain age will remember ‘Sumer is I Cumin In’, which their music teacher doubtless played them. I like this modern take on the mediæval welcome for summer. Perhaps wisely, Annest has avoided mention of the billy goat’s contribution to the song/sound of summer.  Fine imagery yet again, 

"but this day is as losable as a coin."

is particularly effective. 

The titular poem of the collection is truly outstanding. Fresh and forceful imagery conjures spaces where the bucolic meets the edge of the urban, with pin-sharp accuracy. There is little point in singling out lines from this particular poem: it is, indeed, perfect. 

Season of Roses contains a perfect sea-shore vignette in the 3rd stanza, I could see it in a watercolour painted by the mind’s eye. 

"The Little Egret stalks the shore,

yellow cartoon feet and dagger beak

stabbing sand eels from the shallows

where the rule is eat or be eaten."

Annest guides us through to March and , with a sure grasp of imagery and language, the winter’s hinterland the beginnings of spring in Hinterland where

"The wolves of winter

are silent now like fossils

as the moon’s sickle fades

in the scalpel-sharp air."

Part II

            Here Gwilym gives us much more personal set of poems, exploring identity, roots, where home is or might be. There are poems referencing or acknowledging the influence of such poets such as Helen Dunmore and Billy Collins. There is also a fine ekphrastic poem based on work by an American artist Andrew Wyeth, which conjures the bleak look of some of his paintings. 

Tableaux is an assured, sequence of verses as images, layered and intriguing. 

This is a collection to be savoured, pondered over and trawled for meaning, whilst enjoying the vividity of the images conjured by a talented poet. 

Contemplation of Roses by Annest Gwilym is available from here .