On the Edge

The belief in these poems is held with tactile conviction. Liana Hemmett begins with an urban homily, and continues to impress. It’s a case of lovers being encircled in words, weighing up, sometimes stirring into immediate action(s); other times waiting patiently to strike. The people involved in everyday scenes are shaped into something rather extraordinary, where it’s almost possible to taste the expectation, the despair. Events are recorded in piquant narratives, her breath sounding ‘ragged in three minutes’. Be it emotional pleas or a clinical self-assurance, you’ll find her, between the cruel truths of relationship’s-end and dreamy plans for love; but you might not wish to step on her toes!

CITY

This city is wide.
It is fat, joyous with sun.
Strong arms stretch upwards
as its past bites the sky.

You held the base of my skull
in your palms, weighing my trust,
the hidden cost in my eyes
I kept hidden behind skin.

Absorbed by this city,
I watched it
measure my length, drink me in
until rooted through grass and earth
I became it.

Bio: Photographer and poet Liana Hemmett has been writing poetry since the late 1990's. She refuses to admit why she started. Her poems have been published in anthologies and magazines and she was a regional winner of the Ottakars National Poetry Competition in 2003. She lives in Lincolnshire with her kids, her cat and a grudge against mankind.