Kingfisher

The first time I was introduced to Amy Clampitt was with the poem Dorset, reproduced in a waiting room magazine. I was struck by the contrast between her southern-sounding name and the richness of her vocabulary, which in my opinion, equals anything by the best 19th century British authors. The Dorset poem was from her first collection, The Kingfisher. I had to special order the book, and by the time I picked it up the staff in the bookstore had also ordered their own personal copies. In this collection, Clampitt's subjects range from fog, beach glass, kingfishers and cormorants, dank mornings, to the residue of love affairs, and grief surrounding the death of John Lennon. She juxtaposes words as deftly as Dylan Thomas, and it is only her contemporary references that remind us that she is of our times. If you love to be suprised by words, see the world through the eyes of one truly capable of capturing it through the medium of poetry. Read Amy Clampitt, a delightful anachronism for lovers of the English language.