Why did my brain make me say it? Sarah Ziman (Troika)

Sarah Ziman explains in her introduction that she suffers from aphantasia – the inability to give images to her thoughts. So how ironic (situationally) that each and every one of her poems in this brilliant collection brought picture after picture to my mind.

She is so good at capturing the essence of an event, or a feeling, in a few words (writing poems in other words!) that I was transported all over as I read her book from start to finish – in one go (‘couldn’t put it down’). I cringed again as I remembered calling Miss Allen ‘Mum’; walked with her through the cow pat field; agreed that mushrooms do not belong in stew; and marvelled at her use of ‘ammonite’ as a verb – now how can you do that without an image to go with your thought?

This is the first in Troika’s ‘Firsts’ series in which they plan to showcase poets whose work has appeared in anthologies but who have not yet had a solo collection published. I do hope the others live up to the standard set by Sarah Ziman. And could I respectfully suggest better quality paper, next time, please.
JS