The Strange Matter

These poems span streets and gardens, books and films, people and things, creating a landscape that feels both close and surreal.

Sometimes the language is sharp, sometimes lavish, each poem a document of life as a waking dream, a relentless exploration of the everyday.

Ali Jane Smith writes, 'It is a relief to turn thoughts and feelings into a poem. Sometimes it is like making a chair, and sometimes it is like smashing concrete with a crowbar.' Here, the chair might wobble, the cracks in the concrete twist like rivers. They take you somewhere, or they tell you something.

The Strange Matter captures the essence of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, providing readers with a journey through the intricate balances of reality and imagination.