Rachael probably doesn’t know this, but for years I kept my Self Assessment tax details inside my copy of her book Sidereal, scribbled in sharpie in the front cover or opening pages. I carried it to every new flatshare, house, then back again. I knew I would never throw it away and, honestly, what type of identity thief is going to find them in a Picador poetry book on my shelves?
Anyway, quick note from me today, as I’m still onboarding distribution with Gardners and my brain is mostly ISBNs, spreadsheets and FTP clients.
I don’t have much to say about these poems by one of the most quietly astonishing poets we were lucky enough to publish in Issue One. Or rather: I don’t want to over-explain them.
In Selig, repetition becomes both symptom and spell: “They won’t keep me in line” returning again and again. In Atmospherics: “things fall apart softly / and have to be mended”. And in Framework of a Dream, the ice “famous for / not trembling” trembles now.
So today my suggestion is to just read them. Absorb them. And feel the shiver down your spine I felt when I first opened them.
Rachael Boast’s recent publications include Hotel Raphael (Picador, 2021) and TIMESLIPS (Clutag Press, 2024). She is editor of Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent Poets (Bloodaxe Books, 2025). Rachael is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Her new book Volvelle is available to pre-order now.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.