Starspin - Young Barrasford Grahaeme

Starspin is a reflective collection which includes poems published in a wide range of leading magazines and journals including Carillon; Dream Catcher; Envoi; Labrys; Lunar Poetry; Manifold; Northwords Now; Orbis; Other Poetry;Poetry Monthly; Smiths Knoll; Stride; Tears in the Fence; The Journal; Ver; Wandering Dog. These poems are a reminder that all life comes at a price but that we should value that cost and the benefits that ensue.

Barrasford Young's poems are masterpieces of observation offering the reader a vivid landscape of poignant well-crafted poetry. His long time love of books and literature as a retired publisher and bookshop owner offers the reader a lens to see the world of wide experience.

This poem from the book exemplifies his wry observation, empathy and descriptive skills:

The unnecessary death of an otter cub in a new hydro scheme

Dark hydro water turbines back to light

behind my house.

At its high intake a cub caught

in unnatural rock

fights

     concrete scours her cubsilk pelt

concrete strips her skin to gut

her bones break     her will fails

in wild trapped water

that should have buoyed her

she fought

and did she not feel terror

at that slow closing of body,

fear the dark claws

fingering through her eyes?

She did not know of death,

but felt something fail

and found no gentleness.

Not being aware of extinction

makes it no easier.

"Barrasford Young is at his best with his sharp natural descriptions and recreation of scene and place."

Pauline

Kirk, Editor, Fighting Cock Press