Flutes of Whittled Ribs by Karen Downs-Barton
Verve Poetry Press
In Flutes of Whittled Ribs, Karen Downs-Barton is a pied piper leading us into irreverent, quirky worlds, reframed by her whittled ribs. Nature writing reconfigures as wildflowers grown on flop house floors, take root in plastic bottles on tower block windowsills, or wait for songbirds in edgeland dust gardens. These ribs sing of home as wild camping in a converted van with a dodgy steering shaft, and a raft for children with toilet roll telescopes. They show love that is found while contemplating Matisse’s Snail, in a London peepshow, or that dares speak its name through blue lips while wild swimming.
Taking her lead from anthologies that omit the voices of female writers, Downs-Barton turns the cannon on its head, leans lyrical ribs against its naked sailors and seduces in sunflower dresses. Cheekily defiant, Flutes of Whittled Ribs boldly pilfers from legacy anthologies with a symphony of poems played on her whittled ‘spare’ ribs.
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