Alien Crop (Chapman New Writing S.) - Softcover

Paisley, Janet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0906772656 ISBN 13: 9780906772652

Publisher: Chapman Publishing, 1996

Synopsis

In Alien Crop (1996) [Janet Paisley] draws upon a woman's personal views of love and sex, children and the natural world, but evokes them as much through metaphor as by direct observation. The title poem is a celebration of fertility, male energy symbolized by ships and the female identified with the sea, `her depths combed smooth with light'. `Sinking the Ship' neatly reverses the metaphor but is more sexually explicit: `you slide / deep inside me, spill / your whole salt self into my hold / and surging now, surround, enclose'. As always, she gives voice to victims of men, whether as a child (`Don't Say You Love Me, Daddy') or an abused wife (`Easy Street'). Perhaps most memorable are her poems about childbirth, such as `The Caul' and `Words for my Daughter': `my labouring is done, your cry / has split the world's roof .... Go forward / from the shadows mothers cast'. -
Dr Jules Smith.

About this title

Review:

...full of spells, incantations, the repetitions of balladry and folksong -- Scotsman

Above all, however, is the magic of utterance... This intense awareness of the language she uses is Paisley's strength as a writer. -- Cheryl Maxwell

Janet Paisley's ability to move seamlessly from hilarity to fear, pathos and tragedy marks her out as one of the truly vital Scottish writers of today.
-- Contemporary Writers

Janet Paisley's poems have an intensity that make them shine with truth... she enters Sylvia Plath territory and emerges looking more honest and passionate than Plath. She can be winningly self-deprecating and deadly serious at the same time... -- Books in Scotland

The presence of the spoken word is strong in her poetry, which is not surprising given that she is also an accomplished playwright and sometime performer. Her dramatic sensibility informs her poetry in other ways too, such as the frequent descriptions of gestures and rituals. -- Chapman magazine

From the Publisher:

Alien Crop evaporated from the shelves when first published, hence this reprint - vintage Janet Paisley at her sensitive and authoritative best. Her work is prolific and diverse, spanning all disciplines and winning many prizes and awards. She is one of the strongest and most forthright poets working in Scotland today.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chapman Publishing
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0906772656
• ISBN 13: 9780906772652
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 72