Hydra's Heads

de Nora Gomringer

German poet Nora Gomringer is here translated into English for the first time by Scottish poet and editor Annie Rutherford. There is no simple equivalent to Nora Gomringer in the UK but Kate Tempest is perhaps the closest in terms of the way she is experimental wile remaining accessible and in her ability to stride seamlessly from stage to page to film to literature festival. These are poems which defy categorisation - interweaving the best of page and spoken word poetry to create something entirely of her own. These are poems which laugh, howl, stamp their lines. They are candid, wry, compassionate. There are poems about the darker times of Germany's modern history, reworkings of myths and fairy tales, and a 3-page-long ode to sex against a wall.