ALMANAC (2023)

Some momentary thoughts fished from the mind's muddy waters and instantly preserved in poetic amber, Johnny Monroe's first poetry volume for two years contains a collection of verse penned over a span of twelve months, comprising 45 poems of both long and short duration. These snapshots of life passing by and occasionally pausing for a chat are perhaps best represented by 'Pictures From a Train', a poem that uses a railway journey and its split-second glimpses of lives spied through the window as a metaphor for the bigger picture. As ever, there is light and shade as well as lightweight and heavyweight; in other words, all that life can afford...