Migrations by Dominic Fisher
Blueprint Poetry
… I’m homesick for a coast
I don’t know, harbours of absence
whose dialect is long on the tongue
as the catch comes home
(from Exile variations)
Dominic Fisher, our latest Blueprint poet, lives in Bristol. He has been widely published: his first poetry collection, The Ladies and Gentlemen of the Dead, came out with The Blue Nib in 2019. His second, A Customised Selection of Fireworks, was published by Shoestring Press in 2022. The poems in Migrations contain themes of language and belonging, from the ‘rambling melodies’ of migrating geese (The Languages of Geese) to ‘a lover whose words vanish on waking’ (The parting glass) and the inspiring narrative of Nura whose journey from Ethiopia to England involves a string of languages encountered en route.
The poems are skilful, structured and lyrical, with the clarity of form enhancing the emotion they express, whether this is anger at the small mindedness and faux patriotism of our times (Anthem for a shrunken island, Migrations) or tenderness for our human frailty (Crossings, Subdural haematoma). The natural world accompanies the poet, speaking its own language (Forms of Water, A rough guide to the dialect). This is a delicate and fierce set of poems, not to be missed.
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