The title poem of this new collection of poems by Carolyn Jess-Cooke: ‚Boom!‘ enacts the moment when the new baby arrives in the family ‚like a hand grenade‘. ‚Becoming a mother changed me in every single way, ‚ says the author, ‚my first child – born in October 2006 – just about knocked me sideways. There were many reasons for this, but here’s the biggest one: I could not believe how public and political the (hugely personal) experience of motherhood was.‘ A noted academic, author of a book about film and Shakespeare, and a best-selling popular novelist ‚The Guardian Angel’s Journal‘ and ‚The Boy Who Could See Demons‘, Jess-Cooke found, as many parents do, that the juggling act required to raise young children and continue a professional and creative life, is both exhausting and fulfilling. The poems chronicle the rapturous moments, such as ‚Wakening‘ where the baby is observed: ‚the seedling eyes stirred by sunlight‘. There are also the tragi-comic ‚Nights‘ full of ’small elbows in the face‘ and ‚assailed by colds and colic‘. Jess-Cooke doesn’t flinch from the darker fears and depressions that can afflict parents. There are also pieces of pointed satirical intent and socio-political comment such as ‚Poem made from bits of Newspaper Headlines ‚ and ‚The Only Dad in Playgroup‘. Viewing motherhood from a multiplicity of artful angles, the author says, ‚Coupled with all this was the love I had for my children. It completely and utterly blew me away, how much I could love another human being.‘
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