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In his refreshing, clean lines Goodwin combines humour and close observation with hope for a future that inevitably involves departure from this life on earth.
- Sevak Edward Gulbekian, author of In the Belly of the Beast
Manning Goodwin’s poems are insightful meditations about the dilemmas of modern daily life with a deeply felt spiritual foundation. They address philosophically, with honesty and wit, the dichotomy of inner turbulence and a contented quotidian surface.
- Nomi Rowe, author of In Celebration of Cecil Collins: Visionary Artist and Educator
Goodwin’s collection reads like a memoir on mortality, taking us inside a liminal space where vignettes of everyday life - reading, having the boiler fixed - jostle with Cicero and salmon, poisoned figs, goldmines, Afghan ponies and Chinese seas.
From the opening line, ‘Memories of missing people’, Manning’s writing feels as urgent as it is oneiric; death, like the ‘chaps in caps’, is never far from the poet’s thoughts as he gently oscillates between acceptance, humour and thoughts of the beyond, imbued at times with a poignant fatalism (‘They took away my flame yet let me live’).
In one poem, he writes of making a mistake when planning his tombstone (‘a five instead of twenty-five thus lopping off a score of years’), while his study of the belladonna plant weaves ancient tales into the plight of modern hearts. The poems flow around gentle structures; strong iambic rhythms are particularly effective in ‘Sockeye Salmon’ (‘We jump the falls that thunder down /We feed both bear and man, surviving’). A dialogue with death, in which every word feels warmly and purposefully alive.
- Holly Dawson, Writer & Editor
