By Anita Foxall.
Andrew Buchanan’s new poetry collection Love in the Shadows is an evocative and beautiful depiction of love and secrecy. It moves from intimacy and impermanence to affection and acknowledging the darkness that sometimes come with it.
There is a deep melancholia central to the book from the Southampton poet. In ‘As We Quietly Disappear’, the reader is confronted with a strong sense of grief where even the cosmos turns away, leaving the speaker abandoned by the moon itself. This theme deepens in ‘Forgotten Seasons’, where nature and the universe display a quiet disregard for human permanence. It captures the slow, inevitable fading of time as each season arrives only to dissolve gradually into the next, taking memories with it.
The imagery immerses the reader in finely observed sensory details, which are very visible in ‘And When She Says’, with the striking line, “Her hair smells of late-nights and the faint trace of city rain.” In the collection’s title poem, ‘Love in the Shadows’, he captures the fragility of connection perfectly: “I touched you almost as I was afraid of leaving fingerprints.” Intimacy here is not loud, it is found in quiet understanding, as also celebrated in ‘We Learned to Speak’ with its opening truth, “we learned to speak in silences first,” and reinforced again in ‘Love is the Resonance’, where a spoken line hits with emotional clarity: “she said to me, love is the resonance of our hearts.”
But it’s not all quietude, there is also vibrant movement and creation: ‘The Secret Poets’ Meeting’ reminds us of the power of art, showing how love so often begins inside poetry itself. Meanwhile, and because dance is of utmost importance to me, ‘She Dances when there is no Music’ resonated with me so deeply and was one of my favourite poems in this collection. It speaks directly to anyone who understands the compulsion to move to an internal rhythm, beautifully observed in the line, “Even in silence, she moves a rhythm I cannot name.”
Love in the Shadows expands his love in far deeper ways, as the collected is dedicated to the Palestinian people. Andy is a passionate supporter of the Palestinian cause and in ‘Mujadara’, he explicitly demonstrates the importance of heritage, openness to learn and absorb the culture, as act of both remembrance and devotion. Ultimately, the poem stands as a testament to Andy’s profound love for the Palestinian people and their struggle.
If you know Andy and have seen him perform in the various events in Southampton, you will know he generally resists the constraints of rigid structure, preferring a free verse and non-formal flow. That choice makes his ending even more surprising and powerful: he closes the collection with a sonnet. A fabulous collection that demands your attention, Love in the Shadows richly rewards readers with a diverse and moving exploration of love.
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