A dose of mysticism

Rootling: New and Selected Poems

The confidence with which she depicts dreams and fantasies is probably due to the security of her imaginative control. She can flick what might to others seem a fleeting encounter into a sequence of reaction, grounding her metaphors with an accuracy which makes so much of her work come flaring into life and relevance. It’s a weighty gift, this immediacy, and Donovan uses it to prise open the thoughts left behind by decisions and the thoughts that define decisions as well. A contemporary artist who is not at all afraid to use the contradictions of her time as material, her command of rhyme especially gives much of the work gathered here a powerful rhythmic force: work such as Back on Smack, for example, is a straightforward account of living with a drug-addict, but its undertone of anger, loss and desperation is compelling:

‘Your dog bares her teeth