Handling Stolen Goods

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 32 pages
Publication date: 28 February 2019
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd

Degna Stone's collection, which includes both Siri and the trickster god Anansi, showcases her remarkable storytelling skills and her keen understanding of the complexities of communication. Through her travels from West Africa to Black working-class communities in the Midlands and North East of England, Stone vividly portrays the challenges of conveying meaning, where misunderstandings arise and the rules of honesty may not apply universally. However, while human interactions form the core of her poems, Stone also exhibits a remarkable ability to capture the essence of both place and animal nature with precision. Her writing about the crow, for instance, is deeply evocative and symbolic, representing tenacity, boldness, and a harsh yet beautiful essence. When Stone declares, "I want to be as black as the crows," it goes beyond a mere embrace of blackness as a resistance to prejudice. It signifies a profound connection to the natural world and a desire to merge with its inherent qualities.

In this pamphlet, Stone challenges the notion that poetry merely transforms the ordinary. Instead, she demonstrates that the ordinary and everyday have always been transformational. Through her pure distillation of language, where every word holds significance, Stone allows readers to perceive the transformative power inherent in the world around us. Her poems are written from the margins of cities, love, and the body, offering a fresh perspective on the world and enabling us to see it in a new light.

Andrew McMillan, in his review of the collection, praises Stone's ability to write from the outskirts, capturing the essence of language with purity and economy. He notes that her poems are not wasted, as they convey profound messages and emotions with clarity and precision. McMillan concludes by stating that Stone's poems are a testament to the transformative power of the ordinary and the everyday, and they offer a glimpse into the depths of human experience and the natural world.

Weight: 52g
Dimension: 137 x 206 x 4 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781845234348