Mar 27 2009
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The Opposite of Cabbage
Rob Mackenzie’s first full-length collection of poetry, The Opposite of Cabbage, was published earlier this month by UK-based Salt Publishing.
Messiahs parachute themselves to disused northern fairgrounds, a woman diets until practically invisible, trained apes teach a colony of drunks how to dance, a bingo night fuels familial despair and love, and an airborne cabbage blasts a cyclist into orbit. With precision of language and a colourful, anarchic spirit, Mackenzie’s poems focus on their subjects with humanity and hard-won compassion. They have a light touch, but are never trivial. They are for readers who trust that questions are rarely simple and answers never final.
Rob served as co-editor for qarrtsiluni’s Making Sense issue, and we’ve published three of his poems, as well. Rob’s become an influential figure in the contemporary Scottish poetry scene, in part because of the popularity of his blog, which draws commenters from all over the UK and around the world.
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In other qarrtsiluni-issue-editor-first-book news, Brent Goodman’s The Brother Swimming Beneath Me — which you can order directly from the author, as we noted the other week — is now featured on his publisher’s front page as a “spotlight book,” with three glowing blurbs. Check it out.
