Saudade

‘‘Saudade’ captures the zeitgeist of an age seduced by social media with its images of idealised lives. Many of the characters in Nigel Kent’s first collection experience a deep sense of dissatisfaction and an irreconcilable longing for someone or something that they have either lost or never had. Sometimes this is because of unrealistic expectations, sometimes because of factors outside their control and sometimes because they have simply made wrong choices or decisions. He movingly conveys their yearning in poems that will ‘linger, linger, linger’. Nigel Kent’s intimate poems provide a quiet mouthpiece for the disenchanted examining what it is to be human with all its frailties. They urge us to linger on the ineluctable question of what it is that makes life complete. Maggie Sawkins, author of ‘Zones of Avoidance’ and Winner of Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, 2013.