The Department of Stuff & Things

My life is enriched by experiencing the world through Jo Gilbert’s utterly unique, gritty perspective and voice. In Doric Scots and English, she sets the ‘Stuff and Things’ of life e.g. clothes, crockery, shopping, nature, our militant pursuit of ‘so-called’ novelty life-enhancing experiences, at a jaunty angle. In poems such as Lingerie, which begins ‘Surely sadists inventit the thong?’ and You were right about Mars ‘we arrived on the Moon, fucked it up, moved to Mars, then FUBARed her, history repeating’ she cleverly weaves tear-streaming laughter with sugar-punches of pathos that begs us question the world we have made and the existential threats we’re now facing. A compelling and byordinar collection!

(Lesley Benzie, poet)