The Sealey Challenge: DAY 8

Split Twist Apocalypse by Nina Parmenter

due to my chest / no longer keeping time / I assume / it’s mine

Nina Parmenter lives in the Wiltshire countryside where she splits her time between writing, work and motherhood. She’s been published in numerous journals, anthologies and websites, and she has been nominated for the Forward Prize.

I should be honest and state up from that I was already looking forward to Split Twist Apocalypse before it arrived, having been treated to Nina’s poetry in an online course I finished at the end of July. I described her work back then as ‘existential angst’ and wondered if this would be borne out by the collection…

Lessons from the Text

Nina doesn’t disappoint, you know. Reading her work, at least for me, is that feeling of knowing you’re in a safe space with ideas and experiences often lived until… everything just expands… and the Universe crashes your party. Everything is writ large and magnificent, and there you are, floating within it. These poems are the sense of one amongst the whole, and every one holds brilliant, incisive moments of awareness.

From working awkwardness in Meanwhile, in the Grasmere Conference Suite to an environmental warning, under a microscope in The Sociopathic Goddess Gives the Earth a Gift, there is something in here for everyone. From introversion to extravagance, from the real made into surreality and pretty much all points in-between. Nina does great titles too…

This is a poet whose voice is strong, distinctive and humorous… though I sometimes suspect the laughs hide a deeper, more disquieting viewpoint. We all question ourselves like this, the existential angst is never one person’s to carry unaided. Show Nina some support and buy this collection and learn from her about yourself in the process.

Will you read it again? I am wondering when I will be getting time to reread all these poets, to be honest. Have I set myself up to an impossible task? Not with Nina’s work. So much fun, so very enjoyable. A distinct and enjoyable voice.

Would you recommend it for me to read? Why are you not reading this collection already?

Go Buy this Collection from Nina’s own Website!