Riddance, A Wilson

I was really pleased to at last review a book of poetry, especially written by a man and by someone else with NHL (though Anthony’s seemed to present very differently from mine). I write poems myself (but wouldn’t call myself a poet) and more or less everything I’ve written since my diagnosis has been related to my cancer. Creative writing is known to be an effective therapy to help people to deal with serious illness, and I’ve taken part in some excellent cancer-related creative writing workshops.

I really appreciated Anthony’s poems, especially those describing his feelings during treatment, the way other people react, his responses to stages in his cancer journey. There is lyricism, honesty, humour, the everyday minutiae of life with cancer.

Among my favourites are Lost, Spooning Couple, They Said About the Tiredness, For Afterwards, The Honest Truth. Some could be very useful for creative writing courses, examples for people to try such as The Clothes I Bought During Cancer or The Land of What Next.

 

ISBN-10: 1905208162

ISBN-13: 978-1905208166

 

Anthony has a website: anthonywilsonpoetry.com

I leave him the last word from Cured:

Today I am bright-boned

fizzing through puddles on my bike,

..warm, making plans

and looking back at myself as one might

an intruder who took the money and ran