Sue Spiers’ mini-pamphlet is a delight. Brief it may be, yet gives nonetheless ample testimony to her rhythmical astuteness and a sharp-eyed focus on the natural world that can surprise you with the truth of her insights, as in ‘Acrobats’, where she concludes that ‘failing doesn’t mean you can’t go on.’
David Cooke – The High Window
These poems depict animals as themselves, as symbols and as wise creatures with the innate talent of how to go on. Moreover, Sue Spiers ensures that becoming a rhino would be an enviable reincarnation. I for one can’t wait to grow solid as an anvil . . .
Helen Ivory – Ink, Sweat & Tears
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£7.99 contact Sue at Spiropoetry@gmail.com or Hedgehog Press “A Wallet of Creature Poems” – Sue Spiers (eBook PDF Edition) – The Hedgehog Poetry Press (hedgehogpress.co.uk)
Release Date August 2024
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‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ is a song performed by The Police and written by Sting from the Zenyattà Mondatta album. The stand-out line in the lyric is: ‘meaningless and all that’s true’. Poetry may not be strictly literal but its music and emotion often convey something deeply understood and wordplay is fun – right?
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De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da is available from https://www.lulu.com/
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Reviewed by Nigel Kent Search Results for “Sue Spiers” – Nigel Kent – Poet and Reviewer (wordpress.com)
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Reviewed by D. A. Prince in South issue 70
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From 17th March 2020 I kept a diary related to life under lockdown when Covid-19 effects were being mitigated, or not. Each day I wrote a number of Twitter titled #dailyhaiku which I’ve since learned may favour the senryu format as little aphorisms.
A £1 Donation was made, for each copy printed, to the First Story for Young Writers Programme in memory of Sue Wrinch, founder of Loose Muse, Winchester.
In these challenging and uncertain times, the brevity of these haiku offers tiny glimpses of possibility. ̶ Maitreyabandhu
2020-21 is the year of the metal rat in the Chinese horoscope.
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Plague was reviewed in issue #63 of South by Greg Freeman.
Plague is available from https://Lulu.com/
Jiggle Sac is Sue's first collection, it's name is inspired by The Rattle Bag, an anthology edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes where the poems are alphabetical by title. Sue does not rattle and is not a bag.
It's easy to find the poem you're looking for at readings in this form and makes deciding which poem to put in which order much easier. There's a sequence of 10 poems written for Sue's final assignment for her BA which looks at the ages of man as expounded by Jaques from As You Like It by William Shakespeare, except some relate to the ages of women.
Some of the poems have appeared in the Dawntreader, Pro Saculum, South, StepAway, The Interpreter's House, The Hampshire Poetry Map, Sarasvati, 3 Drops from a Cauldron and Openings (the anthologies of the Open University).
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Jiggle Sac is available from https://www.lulu.com/