Kingdomland

Book excerpt: Kingdomland is the debut poetry collection of Rachael Allen - a writer of rare vision and bravery, humanity and flare, of wit, candour and forward brilliance. Her poems are peculiarly rich, suffused with surreal images and uncanny incidents to create bewitching worlds. Omens, sorcery, and unexplained violences take shape in the glowering dusk. We are faced with strange metamorphoses, grotesque bodies, hauntings and impassable paths. And yet, all too clearly we recognise the everyday injustices, griefs and dysfunctions of life here on earth, which Allen chronicles with such balance and, often, sympathy. Kingdomland expresses the fearless cut of Allen's verbal and written edge, and the wild colours of her imagination.