3 Poems forthcoming in The Lonely Crowd literary journal

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Cover, Legion, Eleanor Hooker.jpg

"There are chapbooks, and there are chapbooks. And then there is Legion by Eleanor Hooker.

Letterset by hand, crafted in the old style, these 8 poems sing of honeybees and intone the "trembling water of the lake". Eleanor's work is evocative as always, teeming with the profusion of nature and its gifts and the people who interact with these, in good ways and bad. Echoes of Yeats's "bee-loud glade" come to mind, not just because of the theme but for the texture of the language too.

But Eleanor's words focus on the feminine, weaving images like spells cast over the page, words to harness the energy of the natural world that most of us don't understand but that lead the poet "to wheedle with words".

The honeybee with all its associations - productivity, sweet honey, its sting, the drone reproducing only to die - is a charming metaphor for the many dichotomies of life as well as the greed that abounds in society, where the bee-elect is "trapped in the syrup of its own success".

A beautiful artefact made by Hans van Eijk of Bonnefant Press, Maastricht, Holland, with frontispiece by Jeanie Tomanek."

Anamaría Crowe Serrano - poet and author

"There are chapbooks, and there are chapbooks. And then there is Legion by Eleanor Hooker.

Letterset by hand, crafted in the old style, these 8 poems sing of honeybees and intone the "trembling water of the lake". Eleanor's work is evocative as always, teeming with the profusion of nature and its gifts and the people who interact with these, in good ways and bad. Echoes of Yeats's "bee-loud glade" come to mind, not just because of the theme but for the texture of the language too.

But Eleanor's words focus on the feminine, weaving images like spells cast over the page, words to harness the energy of the natural world that most of us don't understand but that lead the poet "to wheedle with words".

The honeybee with all its associations - productivity, sweet honey, its sting, the drone reproducing only to die - is a charming metaphor for the many dichotomies of life as well as the greed that abounds in society, where the bee-elect is "trapped in the syrup of its own success".

A beautiful artefact made by Hans van Eijk of Bonnefant Press, Maastricht, Holland, with frontispiece by Jeanie Tomanek."

Anamaría Crowe Serrano - poet and author

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Eleanor Hooker

Aug 28

1 min read

Happy to have 3 poems in the upcoming issue of The Lonely Crowd. Huge thanks to John Lavin, Editor.

"Issue 15 will be published on September 7th.

A Page of Knots – Vona Groarke / Local Colour – Tim MacGabhann / Three Poems – P. C. Evans / A Quiet Night – Alison Moore / Four Poems – Jacob Polley / The March of Progress – Richard Milward / Three Poems – Eleanor Hooker / Portrait Photography – Jonathan Gibbs / Two Poems – Lauren Camp / Sorrow – Naomi Kruger / Three Poems – Kate Feld / Phylogeny – Ruth McKee / Two Poems – Glyn Edwards / Double Pneumonia – Jane Fraser / Three Poems – Maeve McKenna / It’s Just Not What We Do – Hugo Kelly / The Lonely Crowd Essay: ‘In Memoriam to Image’ – Jo Mazelis / Alone, leaving the London Library – Adrian Masters / The Downs – Ben Tufnell / Two Poems – Aideen Henry / Laura, 1987 – Rowena Mcdonald / Three Poems – Caroline Stockford / Canal Stories – Neil Campbell / Three Poems – John Freeman / My Sweet One – Sarah Davy / Three Poems – Nuala O’Connor / Sea Light – Matt Rader / Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – Tom Vowler

Edited by John Lavin

https://thelonelycrowd.org/.../The-Lonely-Crowd-Issue-15...

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