Book Review - The Air Year by Caroline Bird
A poet with an endearing taste for the absurd.
Having been intrigued by Bird's latest poetry collection Ambush at Still Lake, I decided to pick up a library ebook of her earlier work first. The Air Year offered me a strong insight into her style.
Bird is an LGBTQ+ writer who beautifully captures relationships, particularly the tragic miscommunications that lead to lover's tiffs and icy silence. She does this through a mixture of free verse and prose poetry, often featuring a conversational tone that doesn't take itself too seriously.
As mentioned above, the poems featured also delve into absurdity and playful existentialism, which is right up my street. The dry humour is largely pitched well, though there are a couple of instances that I feel go on for too long and get muddled in the middle. Mind you, I don't think I've read a poetry collection yet that hasn't suffered from such stylistic issues.
The important thing is that The Air Year never lost me. More than this, I am drawn to Bird's approach to life and poetry, which can be profound but not pretentious. I recommend The Air Year to anyone looking for similar.
Notable Poems
• Temporary Vows - a vivid illustration of how commitments can weaken a love bond.
• The Red Telephone - a powerful depiction of how we turn a blind eye to others in pain.
• The Golden Age - a poetic riff on how daft we can sound when describing celebrities.