Art of Escape

Among Mina Gorji’s poems in New Poetries V (2011) was one about Houdini entitled ‘The Art of Escape’ which returns here as the titlepoem. This colourful and vivid first collection continues the course of Mina Gorji’s meticulous explorations of ‘the strange and sometimes darker side of nature: poisonous plants, fruit-fly mating, weeds, slugs, wasps’ nests. I am drawn to things that might seem ugly or rebarbativebut, on closer inspection, have their own beauty and intricacy. Often a poem begins with information, found in a book or conversation, afact which has a resonance or a cadence which makes it stand out. Something has to happen to turn this into a poem, something strange and unpredictable, a process of calm and obsessive tinkering, from which sounds and patterns emerge and gather into shape.’ This book is a wonderful casting off – escape – from that startingpoint into the complex waters of adult life, in which change has become the constant.