Salmon Poetry 2021 ISBN 978-1-912561-31-5
‘These compelling, beautiful poems reveal a poet who has long found an original footing in the society in which she lives, finding in it a source of inspiration. Anne Tannam is energetically aware of the global sphere of injustice and beauty, of unfair destinies and healing gestures. Festivals and birthday celebrations register as sources for connecting with the life-force in all its forms, but also with mother-love. Mid-life is evoked as an opportunity for renewal, ‘the universe leaning across the table,/gesturing with both hands,/eager to fill me in’, and a possible breast tumour occupies the same space as Schrödinger’s Cat. Elsewhere in this book, Yeats’ hazel wood still lives through a hazel sapling which unfurls an alphabet of hope. The redressing voice of inner charity at work in her lines raises hurt and loss from the silt of memory and creates something serene with it. Dublin viewed as a local space is suggestively evoked in images and visions of people she has loved. And it is this tender voice that conspires with other, socially-engaged poems, creating an authentic collection that will speak to readers everywhere.’
Mary O’Donnell, Author & Member of Aosdana
‘The poet rejects the standard literary mythos that would have us choose, in the poems we read and write, between inward revelation and inspired anger, say, or exploration of self and denunciation of society. Tannam has made the far more valuable discovery that the individuality of the poem (and of the poet) grows fuller and deeper through its attachment to the world….
…Twenty-six Letters of a New Alphabet is alert to the tolls exacted by time’s passage, even as it reflects, in its own progression, the richness of memory, carried through loss. For this delicate balancing-act alone, Tannam’s book may be regarded as a quiet triumph.’
Ciaran O’Rourke, Skylight 47 Issue 15
‘… The poet plays a minuet with the delicacy and skill that form demands.
….This is a recurring trope, the limits of language. However, there is ample evidence in this often very lovely book, of the poet finding just the right gentle melody to capture the world perfectly. A fine achievement.’
Richard Hayes, Poetry Ireland 136 Review Issue
‘Anne Tannam is a poet of honesty and intimacy; the poems in this new collection, written with a distinctive diamond clarity and seamlessly linked, create the feeling of a lifelong conversation with a trusted friend; the concatenation of love, loss and essential silence.’
Maurice Devitt, Author of Growing Up in Colour
