One of the features of poetry to which poets aspire is a distinctive voice; to write poetry that the reader recognises could only have been written by that poet. It does not take long, when reading My C&A Years (Dreich 2022) to realise that Roger Waldron’s poetry has achieved that unique voice and that is has an inimitable perspective on the world.

The first poem in this pamphlet, Fly on the kitchen worktop, is typical. Waldron writes: ‘I’ve just swotted/  a fly with a Poetry Book/  Society Recommendation/ I know   you would/  understand my actions   if/   I told you it was my last act/   on a rather stressful day.’ Note the conversational, anecdotal tone: there is a sense of familiarity here. Waldron assumes a personal acquaintance with his reader, he expects us to understand where he is coming from. Equally characteristic is the fact that Waldron gives this inconsequential…