UNDERCURRENTS
Alba Publishing, 2016
A psychogeography of Irish rivers in haibun and haiku.
Winner of the Kanterman Merit Book Award, and shortlisted for a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award.
'Flotsam' from the collection is part of the Abhainn trail on the Dublin Discovery Trails app, included by Rosie O'Reilly, DCC's Biodiversity Artist in Residence.
Reviews
'Undercurrents contains beautifully crafted work that arouses the senses and triggers a variety of emotions. Its various themes of history, geography, personal history and nature work in perfect harmony. The poems continue to resonate after repeated readings and the book is a worthwhile addition to our haibun collections.'
–Patricia Prime in Haibun Today
(for full review see here)
'Undercurrents is a book of wonder and intrigue, both in its capturing of these watery landscapes, its respect for the intertwined ecosystem and its delivery of the interrelated human story.'
—E.A. Gleeson, Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics
'Undercurrents was with me all summer and I read it front to back several times. I imagine I'll read it again, as I think Bell has something to teach us about the relationship between the prose and the haiku in haibun. .... And when it comes to that occasionally elusive so-called link-and-shift, there's rarely a wrong note. This is a collection that bears rereading and study.'
—Bob Lucky, Contemporary Haibun Online 12.3, October 2016
'Undercurrents is an interesting and rewarding little book, not least for the way it indicates something of a shift in the dynamic of Irish verse as our poetry of place moves away from the pieties of the last century and towards a more exploratory, indeterminate mode.'
—Billy Mills, Elliptical Movements (for full review see here)