Wild Persistence

Katrina Naomi's Wild Persistence is a confident and persuasive collection of poems. The first poem 'Anti-Ambient' warns us to be on guard for the off-guard, to suspend our expectations of pure realism and to stay awake for what comes next. Initially, a move from London to Cornwall sparks poems that query and celebrate the natural world. London is mourned and also derided: «you'd taken on airs/ become grandiose with the possibilities of capital.» Yet the poem also admits that the choice of a move was made by serendipitous chance: «somewhere I'd visited long ago on a rainy night, playing pool/ in a pub near a seaside bus station.»Though never didactic, the poetic voice convinces us of the need to live well, to take time to celebrate a birthday, make love, consider an artwork, muse over the biography of someone admirable. This also means that we need to come face to face with some of the darker aspects of our experience, in Naomi's case the loss of a father through divorce when she was seven, and the illness experienced by her sister and partner. Another section of poems that deals with the aftermath of an attempted rape. Naomi's poetic voice is full of invigoratingly fresh outrage and is unforgiving at a distance of years to the casual passers-by who did nothing to help. She also casts a cold eye on the assailant, whom she ultimately pities, imagining him now 'fat and in his fifties' and destroyed by his predilection for violence.'…this is a liberating reminder that «there are different ways to live»…nothing can suppress the wild and quirky energy at play… Wild Persistence is the joyous affirmation we need.' – PBS"A collection of humour and revelry, lit by the repeated flare of violence and warmed by the unapologetic need to live the life of one's choosing." – New Welsh Review