A New Way with Time - Jimmy Crighton. £3 - ISBN 0-9543371-1-5 - Poor Tom's Press, 89a Winchester Avenue, Leicester, LE3 lAY
The late Jimmy Crighton was a hospital doctor and later a GP. This informs both the content and sensibilities of many of the poems in this collection. The collection is significant in size for a pamphlet, with 45 poems. The poems were written during his last 6 years of life while he was struggling with cancer. The poems however celebrate life in its diversity, humanity and its humour – Hooghmagandie means/the same as fornication/but muckle mair fun (Five Scottish Haikus). I liked these, but they’re not haikus!
These are solid poems of people and place, of times and of time going by – buses with conductors/who helped you on and off/and called you love (All Hours). All of the poems are well written. Some part of me, however, wanted a little more. It seemed to me that the writing had the capacity to move beyond good serviceable poems to something exceptional. I was disappointed that this never happened. Nonetheless, this collection is good value for £3.