With poetry collections, it’s natural to read with an eye for repetition, for the motifs that surface, vanish, then return in a new light. Here, the clearest throughline is the way childhood keeps its grip on adulthood. Memory doesn’t stay neatly archived. It wanders. It resurfaces without warning. Many of these poems circle the experiences we gather early and never fully release. Like half-remembered dreams, they rise from deep storage as the years pass, arriving as phantom scents, stray tastes, sudden images. What are they to us? Simple recollection? Or signals from an earlier self, coded, persistent, and asking to be understood?

Triskele, by Neil McKelvie, is a poetry collection that feels, at times, reminiscent of A Visit to William Blake’s Inn. The pieces are brief yet vivid. They lean into food, childhood, love, memory, and the quiet pleasure of ordinary moments. Nothing is overworked. Nothing is forced. The language often lands like a small sensory discovery.

Poetry also invites a familiar question: are we meant to read literally, or to hunt for symbol? In this collection, either approach can stand. McKelvie shows a steady command of a dreamlike mode. The themes arrive on soft edges. Meaning glows rather than declares itself. There’s an esoteric, ethereal charge to much of what’s offered, suggestive, elusive, and deliberately unpinned.

That quality makes the reading experience pleasurable, even soothing, yet it also creates a persistent sense of distance. The poems open a door into the speaker’s inner world, then stop short of full access. You can see the room. You can’t quite cross the threshold. Some selections, such as “Red Skies Rainbows” and “The Vanishing,” are heartbreakingly lyrical, rich with beauty and ache. Others, including “IX The Ninth,” turn toward violent historical events, remembering and mourning what cannot be undone.

For readers seeking the most immediate enjoyment, it may be best to accept many of these poems at face value. Let them be what they appear to be. Let the images stand. That choice often brings you closer to the author’s emotional frequency. It also gives you the best chance to meet the collection in its intended mood, which, for poetry, is often the point.

Pages: 116 | ISBN : 1300762756