Chris Campbell (Spoken Label, August 2021)

Latest Spoken Label (Poetry, Author and Artist Chat) features the wonderful Chris Campbell talking about his second collection "White Eye of the Needle".

Some praise about the author include:

Stunning, sensual and subtle. In White Eye of the Needle, we see a clear love of language with a deft alertness to the power of sound and what it can create. Combined with stunning images, this is a book to give those you love.' – Katherine Lockton, co-editor of South Bank Poetry  

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'These poems are sparkling with affection. Campbell finds beauty in the everyday, in the connections to each other and to the land. In a world when we are feeling cut off, these poems are like a bridge back to some sense of balance. They are celebrations of relationships, places and of being alive. Some of them feel like a home I’ve never been to.' – Poet and performer David Linklater, author of Black Box  

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'Chris Campbell's poems are accessible, enjoyable, and formally and stylistically thoughtful and dextrous – as in 'Yellow dress', which empathetically slips into and out of ballad metre, or the well-pitched epigram 'Time doesn’t slow', or the subtle uses of slant-rhyme and couplets in 'Last night of our honeymoon', in which 'We eat side by side, the candle facing us, / The taps of shoes are circling // But beside us, a restaurant sits empty, / Laid out cutlery and glass'. A lot of the explorations in these poems are personal, but this is no solipsist's diary: he is constantly conscious of the power a poet can have to touch someone's heart by revealing his own.' – Poet Rory Waterman, senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing, Nottingham Trent University

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'At a time when the world feels a little darker, White Eye of the Needle invites the reader to gaze upon a world where "houses rub shoulders", "the taps of shoes are circling" and dawn spreads its welcome light "like the oranges brightening Seville". In this tender, wistful collection, Campbell observes humanity with a sharp eye – where the lockdown poems offer a relatable and searingly honest depiction of our days transfixed on blinking screens, there is always the human touch to offer relief in a lemon dress, the notes of 'Für Elise', tumbling hedgerows and the tender simplicity of a shared meal with a loved one. Like the flowers that push through its city gardens, this is a collection that reminds us that it's the human connection and the power of the natural world that keep hope alive in a world gone dark.' – Natalie Ann Holborow, award-winning poet and former versifier in residence at Dylan Thomas Birthplace

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More about Chris can be found at his website which is: https://www.chriscampbellpoetry.co.uk/

Poems read out in this session include:  

1) Chimney Snorkels 

2) St Ives Cafe 

3) Last night of our honeymoon 

4) Mister Painter 

5) Yellow Dress