Hearing Eye

Weird, tangential, and at times disturbing, Sunflower Equations is an engrossing and provocative collection from June English. Approaching the difficult theme of sexual abuse with articulate honesty, June English draws the reader into a world which is in turns sun-filled and light, bitter and terrifyingly dark: you strip me, fie me, camera poised/ kneel between my quivering knees/ thrust screwdrivers into my womb/skewer the woman from the girl. Her accomplished and confident voice is unwavering and witty, and in poems such as 'Stepmother', Whore Games' and 'Pedestrian Crossing', she juxtaposes visceral authenticity with a lyrical playfulness. This is an original collection; English's assured command of language and imagery, and her unusual approach to complex themes make Sunflower Equations stand out from the crowd. Recommended.

As in the best poetry, the content is in complete harmony with the form. It makes one wonder whether there might not be a paradise of pure form, prefiguring words - an embryonic music that seeks its release in the unparaphrasable collocation of precise verbal sound-structures, and which has its roots in the pulse of our blood.