Review of 'Venti' by JoAnne McKay

The first thing that strikes you when you pick up JoAnne McKay’s pamphlet ‘Venti’, is just how nice it feels in your hands. Lovingly and exactly designed for both textural appeal and visual beauty, ‘Venti’ is a stunner. The gorgeous illustrations by Matt Kish lift the book and complement the poetry. Awesome work has gone into each and every copy by way of hand-stitching, embossing, a choice of outer cover and differently coloured be-ribboned label…

But this is also dextrous, accomplished poetry. A distinctive voice, wise as well as energetic, permeates these poems. I like the grounded experience that comes through in poems like ‘In These Hard Times’:
‘Tonight, new moon,
whilst washing this single bowl,
I have not seen you.
I screw my eyes and sever
vision from brain’…

JoAnne is an excellent performer of her own work, giving it an almost hypnotic rhythm and sense of narrative. She’s good on superstition, and instinct. ‘Elm Hateth Man, and Waiteth’ derives from folklore, and majors on haunting repetition:
‘Who lives in thee, elm tree?
No one, cried the rooks’

JoAnne can also write both sensitively and unsentimentally about nature, as in the title poem, ‘Venti’:
‘I like the leached night;
my trees talk to me.
Sound-wash soft Rowan
Apple shiver
hard notes of Pear.’

These poems are engaging because the poet’s self-reliance and the intelligent judgement she brings to her observation of the world shine through. ‘Venti’ feels surefooted. And it’s jolly nice to own. If you want to acquire one, explore http://titusthedog.blogspot.com/


Reviewed by Jean Atkin