This Far Back Everything Shimmers

The universe has never been depicted so intimately, nor the mundane so infused with stellar significance as it is in the poetry of Vicki Husband. This debut collection is as inspired by quantum physics as it is by domestic drama: the shape of the universe is mimed during a game of charades; a woman's domestic arrangements take on a cosmic dimension; a man stands on the corner selling black holes and property on the moon. Her nature poetry stands at an odd angle to her subjects, not merely content to observe or eulogise landscape or animals: she wants to know what police horses patrolling Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street on Saturday night make of the drunken revellers or why jellyfish are flashmobbing a nuclear power station. Her imagination is rooted in compassion, particularly for the elderly and, in one especially moving piece, a man slowly dying from asbestosis. With sympathy, humour and an idiosyncratic eye, Husband reveals herself to be a unique and cherishable talent.