Hannah and the Monk

Reading Julia Bird's debut collection is like sorting out the contents of an up-ended jewellery box. Crafted formal poems tangle with the rhinestone razzle of looser, noiiser lyrics.

What price consolation, the poems ask, where is the green heart of a city, when does love stop and the work start?

The answers come in all sizes and styles. Images from popular culture, urban myth, religion and history, music, film and TV glow with a steady emotional truth. From spivs to flying monks, chalk horses to London boozers, Bird's imagination takes a circuitous route at a determined clip.