Earthlight

Life, we say, is best understood when outside looking in, and with a little hesitation Judith Taylor invites us to share the peripheral world of things. Her astute observations are nursed to opinion, though at times may seem fragile, but in fact is inner strength. She revisits places with a sardonic view: on occasion a quiet anger, meandering into a sense of the unjust, when she needs to escape and rise above it all, where minor details persist and the upshot is major. No obstacle impairs her line of vision. If not in dreamy pastures, then she’s lying with her lover, waking and sleeping, while outside in the rain, ‘the cars make waves.’ From sassy old women in the library, to the tranquil shores of Kinshaldy, to the open road and roaring motorcycles, her poems tap into the ordinary, the everyday function of things.

Note

I’m assuming
( though I may be wrong ) you’ll soon see
what I haven’t taken: jacket,
cards, umbrella;
my keys from work. I’m not

writing this down, if you don’t know:
you’re not my love any more.
You’re just a character in my story.

Your function now is to be the first
to ask yourself where I’ve gone.
 

Bio: Judith Taylor was born and brought up in Perthshire. She has lived and worked in Aberdeen since 2003. Her work has appeared in a variety of magazines, and in the anthologies Meeting Points (Lemon Tree Writers) and Sex in the City (Koo Press). This is her first collection.