Fits and Starts

fit noun1. Also fytte. A section of a poem or song; a canto. obsolete exc. hist. OE. start noun2. A sudden burst of energy or activity; an outburst of emotion, madness, etc.; a flight of humour. Also, a sudden broken utterance or sound. Now rare or obsolete. l16. (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary) Andrew Johnston’s mesmerising new collection weaves together fragments of dream, myth, memory and experience. With humour and melancholy, these poems draw upon the random treasures of the radio alphabet and the ancient contradictions of the Old Testament. At their centre, the mythical figure of Echo roams through an imaginary landscape. Hope, love, health and voice disappear and reappear, rescued by faith in poetry’s power to invent its own kind of sense. There was so much meaning in her life. She didn’t know what any of it meant. ‘Jeremiah