Well, I am delighted to introduce you to the first of our series of Books of the Week that we are planning to run through the whole of 2021.
Since we started the Hedgehog Press one poet who has been integral in so many ways is the wonderful Nigel Kent and so I am delighted that this week I can introduce you to his first collection for us, ‘Saudade’.
A lot has been said about the collection, but I think Maggie Sawkins summed it up best when she described it thus,
‘‘Saudade’ captures the zeitgeist of an age seduced by social media with its images of idealised lives. Many of the characters in Nigel Kent’s first collection experience a deep sense of dissatisfaction and an irreconcilable longing for someone or something that they have either lost or never had. Sometimes this is because of unrealistic expectations, sometimes because of factors outside their control and sometimes because they have simply made wrong choices or decisions. He movingly conveys their yearning in poems that will ‘linger, linger, linger’.
Nigel Kent’s intimate poems provide a quiet mouthpiece for the disenchanted examining what it is to be human with all its frailties. They urge us to linger on the ineluctable question of what it is that makes life complete.”
Order Signed Copies direct from Nigel Kent HERE
I asked Nigel a few impertinent questions about ‘Saudade’:
- What was the inspiration for the collection and how long did it take to come together?
I never know how to questions about ‘inspiration’. To be honest I never feel ‘inspired’ when I write a poem. ‘Inspiration’ suggests to me a clear purpose and a fluent push toward completion which never happens when I write a poem. Though I may have an image, a feeling or an idea to get me started, the writing process is slow and arduous, involving multiple revisions in which the idea/feeling painfully evolves and the original image is most likely rejected. To get me through I need a strong driving force and, I suppose, that’s a strong sense of social justice and an empathy for others who don’t have a voice in our society. I want my writing to unpack ordinary lives and give them significance, making others take notice. I hope ‘Saudade’ does that.
- How did you get involved with writing poetry – is there a ‘literary tradition’ in your family?
There is no literary tradition in our family, though my mother passed on to me her love of reading. I was a very early reader, being able to read before I went to school, and I remember reading Dickens’ ‘Hard Times’ when I was ten and recognising that literature wasn’t just about story, it also had something significant to say, something more enduring (though I wouldn’t have put it like that at the time!)
The songs of Leonard Cohen turned me onto poetry at about 16 and I spent all my earnings from my part-time job (packing potatoes for our local supermarket) on the Penguin Modern Poets series, discovering poets like Edwin Brock, Peter Porter, Charles Bukowski and Adrian Mitchell, whose work still influences me today. I had my first poem published at the age of 17 in an anthology called ‘All People are Poets’ and received a royalty payment of ten shillings.
- Are you a ‘researcher’ or is your work more imagination-driven?
I guess my poems are based on observation and experience. Whilst they are not real, I hope they are true. I like to write about subjects I know something about, so inevitably many of those experiences are personal ones. That is not to say that I never research. I am currently engaged on a collection of ekphrastic poems called ‘Whispers in the Gallery’. This has involved researching both paintings and artists, during which I look for something with which I can connect and which is central to the painting that the poem can develop.
- Tell us something about the book that nobody has mentioned that they have noticed yet
The last poem in the collection, ‘The Urban Shaman’ was inspired by seeing the performance of another poet published by Hedgehog Poetry Press. I’ll allow readers to work out whom!
- What is the best comment about the book that you have heard or read?
As I write I’ve just seen that Glynn Young, writer and reviewer, has included ‘Saudade’ as one of his poetry books for the year, describing it as one of the collections that has ‘impressed me, challenged me, cheered me, and perhaps even changed me a little.’ I think any writer would be pretty pleased if their books did even one of those things!
About Nigel Kent
Nigel Kent is a poet living in rural Worcestershire. He is an active member of the Open University Poetry Association and occasional editor of its workshop magazine. He has been shortlisted for several national competitions and his poetry has appeared in a range of publications such as A Restricted View Under the Hedge, The Road to Clifton Pier, Lost things, Poems for Keeps, What the Elephant said to the Peacock, What the Peacock Replied, Persona non Grata, and The Pocket Book of Anger, South Poetry Magazine, Acumen, Eye Flash Poetry. His poetry conversation pamphlet, ‘A Hostile Environment’, written in collaboration with Sarah Thomson, was published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in January 2019, and a second conversation, ‘Thinking You Home’ in June 2019. His poetry has been translated and appeared in the literary journals, Pro Saeculum and Banchetul. Saudade’ is his first collection. He is currently writing a libretto for an opera with composer, Gilbert Biberian. You can follow Nigel on Twitter @kent_nj
About ‘Saudade’
- Paperback : 60 pages
- ISBN-10 : 191609080X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1916090804
- Product Dimensions : 14.81 x 0.36 x 21.01 cm
- Order Signed Copies direct from Nigel Kent HERE