Reviews for ‘The Illuminated World’
‘There is no doubt in my mind this is the real thing, a breath-taking collection. Jemma Borg hunts down ideas like there’s no tomorrow, with all the power of a ruthless concentration. This is an active, passionate and mature mind at work. She eagerly and obstinately presses on in the face of so much we don’t know, determined not to be overwhelmed by our (human) ignorance. Her work is cool and concentrated and demonstrates a rare combination of intellectual rigour coupled with an innate sense of what a poem is and what it feels like. Ambitious, stubborn, ruthless, incorruptible – what more could one ask of a first collection? Nothing if not ambitious, Jemma Borg is a poet to watch and wonder at.’
Selima Hill
‘Jemma Borg whisks her reader into the dawn of time and out across the universe. Through her lyricism there runs an active, precise imagination, constantly seeking the truth of the matter and using a spirit of scientific enquiry to find it. Explicit in all the poems is a recognition of our connection to the physical world, expressing an ecological awareness of decay, destruction and beauty of the planet, and the relative brevity of our moments of bliss.’
Caroline Maldonado, London Grip
‘Love is at the heart of this book, along with life and death… The scientific world and the human world of mystery and meaning are intertwined… and these strands are woven into a rich and multi-layered view of things that feels like a long, intense conversation.’
Katy Evans Bush, Poetry London
‘The poetry in this book feels as if it has been tested almost to destruction. The word that came to my mind is ‘rigorous’ (a term of high praise in the field of science). That may make it sound rather dry and uninvolving, but it is about as uninvolving as a high-tension cable, humming with lethal voltages. Reading this collection left me feeling wrung-out but exhilarated: exhilarated by the beauty of the language and the clarity of the insight. It is a rare poet who is able to combine both so well as Borg does.’
Paul Blake, Brittle Star
‘The range across space and different habitats on earth, is striking and impressive. These poems exhibit an extremely attractive way of regarding the world, and are not afraid to be aesthetic and metaphysical, replete with myths and jewels’
Peter Forbes
‘To say Jemma Borg’s background as a scientist rings clearly in her poems makes them sound dry – they are anything but. It is simply that to language and imagery she brings a scientist’s precision and care: this, in combination with an artist’s heart, is rare. These varied and emotive poems display a keen interest in human responses and an individual’s reaction to a complex world’
Erica Wagner, New Writing Ventures Judge
‘Borg is a writer to watch. Her poems take us into genuinely new places, with great care and precision, step by step’
Carol Rumens, Poetry London
The Illuminated World
Eyewear Publishing (1 Oct 2014), ISBN 978-1908998262
https://blackspringpressgroup.com/collections/eyewear-classics
This is also available for purchase directly from me using PayPal
The book is £9.99 plus postage & packaging. Please email me for more details.