Review - Kate
Noakes - Cape Town
Anyone who has looked
beyond Cape Town’s tourist traps will smile in recognition at these closely
observed poems about the city and wider environs.
A five-month work
stint in early 2011 proved a fruitful time for Welsh poet Kate Noakes, whose
third collection this is. Her subversive
eye found rich resources in the place, its past and present politics, and life.
Poems range from ‘a yard
of silver’ snoek to the ‘Green and yellow blanket man’ begging aggressively in
Long Street, from hadedas ‘plagued with smoker’s cough’ to quagga and zebra
‘bar-coded for its foals to find home’, from forced removals to fracking and
HIV transmission. Noakes employs a deft
touch, vivid imagery and frequent humour.
This elegantly printed
hardback is an empathetic, thought-provoking invitation to view our city with
fresh eyes.
Sarah Rowland
Jones
Cape Times, Friday,
December 14, 2012, p.32
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