This week I welcome reviewer and poet, Gerry McGrath, to reflect on his wonderful chapbook, Love All the People.

The Makings of a Good Conversation – ends & beginnings

Poetry can stop the heart, if not time.

Recently I was in correspondence by email with a friend. We’ve both been doing the poetry thing for a long time and trust each other’s instincts and responses. Anyway he said something I’m sure he won’t mind me reproducing here. It’s about getting your body into the right angle. The reason I like this so much is that it uses ordinary straightforward language in order to say something quite captivating. That’s not as easy as it sounds. Not at all. How do you begin to talk about how poetry begins?

The more I look at it, the more I think The Makings of a Good Conversation is about ‘voice’. Voice has its…