Slip

From the initial diagnosis Slip traces the gradual loss of memory and vocabulary that comes with dementia.
It’s the tip of an unknown iceberg. How can we possibly know what the person with dementia is feeling? ‘My head is broken’ seems to sum it up.

‘‘…. this is no misery memoir. Every poem in the collection is leavened by language which is fresh, precise, and sparkling, grounded in the constancy of nature. As dementia takes hold and his words dwindle, ‘It’s a kite / tacking in the wind for fickle esperanto / a slave to the tithing moon of memory’ and, after a lockdown funeral ‘At dawn the blackbird will sing unattended / and at dusk the foxes’ wariness will go unchallenged / and bats circle and flutter like memories’. This is a poet at the height of her powers.’’
Angela France