Surge is a hard but beautiful book singing fury and compassion. A reminder to remember what is has been conveniently forgotten. It links the New Cross Fire of 1981 with the Grenfell disaster. It asks questions about the society we live in. It gives the voiceless a voice. It reminded me - not in style but in its intention - of Anna Akhmatova's 'Requiem'

(from Requiem)

“And can you describe this?”
And I answered:
“Yes, I can.”

What Bernard tries to describe is sometimes hard to read.

Every poem should be read here but the stand-outs for me were 'Songbook', '+' and '-', 'Hiss' and 'Flowers'.

"Will anyone speak of this
the way the flowers do..."

Read it.

And weep.