Welcome to the webpage of Sam Smith. Yep; THE Sam Smith the novelist, poet, editor, reviewer etc etc and all round brilliant writer. Here we are proud to launch Sam's first new full length perfect bound, 168 page, paperback collection Mirror, Mirror (The Geography of the Head) for erbacce-press and before I go-on read a review of this totally amazing book HERE.
The staff at erbacce don't write reviews for other erbacce-poets, it's a matter of matter of policy, but when I did see an initial draft of this amazing book some time ago I did a review for Bluechrome in which I said, in part, the following:
- 'Voices echo throughout this collection, not only the voices of the schizophrenic, the bipolar, the possessed and the dispossessed but also the many voices of the poet which are often locked in contradiction and conflict. Contradictions that make Sam Smith's honest and humane observations, at times, almost too painful to read...
- Perhaps Sam Smith’s ultimate conclusion is that mental illness is what we as human beings inflict on other people. As if to draw attention to who these ‘other people’ might be, the final poem, ‘Point of no Return’, reminds us starkly that the road to being labelled mentally ill can be one trodden by any of us, but even more chillingly that it may well be that a relatively minor event can lead to Society taking the decision to ‘throw away the key’...
- ...Don't throw away the key that Smith offers you in this brilliant and humbling anthology, for he offers you a key to an insight that few can offer us. If Shlovsky would have it that the work of the artist is to make the stone stonier then Smith asks you to consider the possibility that to label people as insane is perhaps the most insane thing that Society ever does.'
Re-reading Sam's poems, editing and type-setting them, brought back to my mind what an amazingly honest collection this is; honest, yet almost detached, it is almost a catalogue of events which makes it sound as if I am describing some academic piece when in fact it is the very detached nature of the written words that reveals Sam's compassion and injects the poetry with an empathic honesty that at times is almost unbearably beautiful. I realise that I appear to overuse the word 'honest' and yet THAT is what I take away from this collection; it is also unique in being an observation by one who has been there and done that. READ IT! I absolutely promise you that it will soon become the most 'thumbed' collection on your book shelf.
You can purchase this truly exceptional book by clicking on the Buy Now button below and Sam himself will acknowledge the order or you can email him direct and he'll be happy to supply a signed copy; to email Sam click on the cover below.
