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“Against the Pull of Time is a spiritual and physical journey. On the island of Iona Jenna Plewes travels far into herself to come to terms with loss, ageing and mortality. The outer landscape is wonderfully realized. Sea, shore, shells, birds and buildings play a central role in her inner exploration. The immediacy of the pared writing in this sequence, its telling details and the sharing of a deeply-felt experience, draw the reader into Plewes’ journey.”
Myra Schneider
“In tender, beautiful and unsentimental language Jenna Plewes takes us on a journey, walking barefoot on wet sand, sitting in a ruined nunnery, musing on the shoreline 'handcuffed to the sea'. it is a long time since I have read a collection that moved me so. One line somehow says it all: 'so many things are precious in the leaving and the letting go'. This is a collection I want to read over and over – also rare these days.” Roselle Angwin
Against the Pull of Time is very very deep-rooted and seamlessly woven.
R.R.P. £6.50
A sample poem from the pamphlet may be enjoyed below.
BUY Against the Pull of Time now, using the paypal link below.
A Thin Place
A hand-span measure where time dissolves
in a turquoise sea.
A cell where your mind squeezes through bars,
spirals the thermals.
Here, ideas hatch like midges in sunlight.
Wind indifferent to everything but itself
will temper you, silence will free you from explanations
and excuses. The chill of rippled sand
will teach your naked feet to walk with tenderness
across the thin-skinned earth.
This place is a heart-squeeze of finding and losing,
where you will walk the machair,
try to snare a singing bird, cage it and learn its song,
where you must set it free.
REVIEWS
"V Press clearly have a keen editorial eye and produce beautifully imagined and constructed pamphlets and books...
"Jenna writes quite brilliant poetry, which isn't a bad place to start and with this collection she has created something genuinely beautiful and moving...
"Jenna's poetry has a quiet power to it that shines through the simplest of passages and as I read her work I was repeatedly hit by the beautiful imagery that she uses...
"There is a real, genuine depth to the poetry that has a sense of the spiritual but never descends into preachy. Instead there is a feeling of the ancient about the collection and Jenna's choice of words is always quietly apt and they are always meticulously placed, clearly considered.
"This is very much a grown-up collection of poetry, and if it isn't seriously considered for awards in the coming months it would feel criminal."
Mark Davidson, A Restricted View From Under The Hedge, full review and an interview with Jenna in issue 2
“This is a spare, meticulously-crafted and deceptively simple collection which carries a weight far beyond its few pages and which will bear repeated reading by anyone looking to come to terms with the finite nature of our relationship with life and land.” Justine Knowles, The Cannon’s Mouth
“...a gentle, accessible, attractive, but at times astringent pamphlet… Plewes is economical and to the point, marshalling her material effectively…This awareness [of precariousness/walking a tightrope] influences the form of the poems and gives then a contrapuntal quality and an edge which makes her work interesting as well as enjoyable.“ Dilys Wood, Artemis
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