Win Harms: In Harms Way

Barncott Press has been coming out with some exciting poetry titles lately, and one bright new poet is American expat Win(ifred) Harms, an accomplished writer who, incidentally, will be playing the title role in the upcoming filmic production of Eddie Woods’ classic Mary.

In her debut publication, entitled (perhaps inevitably) In Harms Way, Harms achieves something extraordinary. She taps in to the deep personal and collective trauma of our age, and does so with an almost off-the-cuff feel devised by a skillful and often playful handling of language and metaphor.

The kind of poetry that Harms produces requires an entire book, and even though she has individual publishing credits in various journals and publications, this intimate collection reads as a cohesive unit with its own sense of immediacy and a fast paced rhythmic propulsion. The imagery is dense and triggering and the metaphor is gritty and contemporary. Particularly poignant are…