Driftwood by Starlight by Caroline Gill

This is the first full collection of poetry by Caroline Gill, who blogs at Wild and Wonderful and also has a blog dedicated to her poetry. This collection follows on from numerous publications in journals and magazines and in the pamphlet The Holy Place (with John Dotson, which I reviewed here). 

Caroline Gill is a very skilled writer of formal verse, with a great sense of rhythm and rhyme. She is also a meticulous observer of nature. Both these aspects of her poetry are clearly demonstrated in Migrant Hawker (the migrant hawker is a species of dragonfly):

You skim through my hair on this dragonfly day,
zig-zagging along as you harvest my thoughts
to bind them in bands on your rainbow today. 

Meanwhile in Puffin's Assembly, she dwells on the crisis facing many of our seabirds:

...the ocean wails beneath our wings.
I sense its brooding grief.
In time we shall be hardly more
...than hearsay about 'ancient things'

Some poems are more light-hearted, Isabella Tiger Moth Greets the Woolly Bear Caterpillar is an amusing short poem about insect metamorphosisi while in Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds, a cat surveys monuments of the ancient world. 

This short collection is a treat for people who enjoy nature and appreciate well crafted formal verse.

Driftwood by Starlight by Caroline Gill published by Seventh Quarry Press (2021)