Elizabeth Campbell

There is much poetry about currently which does not value rhythm and music as integral to its sense. Day’s poetry absolutely does; filled with assonance and internal rhyme which renders many individual lines beautiful and suggestive. The first poem, ‘El Iskandariya’ is one of the best, capturing a moment without labouring it:

When marsh birds pooled out of the sky like ink
on water to devour the barley flour 
that Alexander’s men had laid to mark 
the city’s boundaries, the hour 

seemed lost beyond recall ...
(p. 1)