The Strange Matter

The Strange Matter invites you into a world both familiar and strange, capturing the moments in between — catching the bus, looking up at the moon, baking bread, listening to music, spotting onionweed, and snacking on Jatz. These poems span streets and gardens, books and films, people and things, creating a landscape that feels both close and surreal.
Sometimes the language is sharp, sometimes lavish, each poem a document of life as a waking dream, a relentless exploration of the everyday. Ali Jane Smith writes, ‘It is a relief to turn thoughts and feelings into a poem. Sometimes it is like making a chair, and sometimes it is like smashing concrete with a crowbar.’ Here, the chair might wobble, the cracks in the concrete twist like rivers. They take you somewhere, or they tell you something.