A "collection of deceptively powerful and quietly moving poems".
Colin Pink
[Review in 'Acumen']
"One poem – ‘Think Tank Thug’ – employs
the sort of exaggeratedly long lines and prosy style
that always make me sigh and turn to the next page.
Not here. Here, I love it. I find it so delightful and so clever
that I can’t bring myself to write about the poem
or quote an extract
– although I long to introduce you to “the strong verbs”
drinking in the pub. If you were here,
I would make you sit down and listen to me reading it aloud.
Possibly twice.
"So what is the secret?
It’s partly character.
It’s the personality of Philip Rush,
whoever and whatever he is (I don’t know him).
He’s quirky, funny, thoughtful, entertaining.
He doesn’t show off.
He shares what feels like the perfect phrase,
or word, or expression for the context,
as though he’d picked it up while walking in the woods.
The writing’s mainly rooted in the natural world
where everything is as ordinary
(and as miraculous) as a leaf, if you look at it carefully.
He does look. And the more you read him,
the more you trust him to tell you what he sees."
Helena Nelson
"The book concludes with a true masterpiece,
‘‘Folk Routes, New Routes’ An Ode to Davey Graham & Shirley Collins’
, a freewheeling hymn to, maybe elegy for,
the outward-facing, optimistic England of the Sixties.
Ostensibly written around the hugely influential 1964 album
recorded by Graham and Collins, with Gus Dudgeon at the mixing desk,
but which also contrives to encompass maps, cars, football,
Dr Johnson, wild flowers and the old, pre-1974 counties, including Philip’s own Middlesex.
In it, a ‘vintage old-school / road atlas [ . . .] / i
ncludes a short / and largely pointless / section of the M1, /
a stub of the M5 / leading south from Birmingham /
and the entire M50.’
(And also, no M4, on which Dudgeon and his wife Sheila died in 2002.)
It’s a poem like no other I know."
Matthew Paul
Now available through our Big Cartel page.
POETRY WALKS
DIALECT POETRY WALKS IN STROUD
“The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass”
‘The Eve of St. Agnes,’ John Keats
Three walks with poems, each walk about three miles,
taking about an hour and a half.
The poems will echo something in the walk and the place,
and will include both old and new texts.
The walks are to be led by Philip and Caroline Rush.
Winter mud and frost almost certainly guaranteed.
Mittens essential, gaiters or boots desirable, prize for best hat.
Meeting places with parking and so on
will be sent out shortly before the walk.
(Walks will be postponed in the event
of orange or red weather warnings,
and possibly after yellow warnings;
they will be rescheduled.)
Tuesday 26th November 11 am: Avening.
Saturday 14th December 11 am: Chalford
Monday 20th January St Agnes’ Eve 11 am: Oxlynch and Standish Woods
Everyone is very welcome.
Tickets are £30 for three; £12 for a single walk
(see Dialect website for booking).
If you’re on a low income
or experiencing financial difficulty for any reason,
we can offer 'pay what you can' and free spaces on each walk.
Please contact juliette.morton@dialect.org.uk to request.