Cheryl Follons Dirty Looks

Cheryl Follon is what one could call a modern Romanticist. She reveals the gritty side of human nature that goes hand in hand with love and desire. Unlike the average love poet Follon brings to her poetry a blunt, evocative and cutting portrayal of sex and love. Dirty Looks holds nothing back as Follon serving up a fiery banquet of playful poetry that relies on highly sexual, overtly crude and tender imagery to tell her tales. The collection has a somewhat fairground, Alice in Wonderland feel to it as we are drawn into Follons wild and fantastical world, its hard not to expect a talking white rabbit to appear. Cheryl Follons work is engaging, sharp, insightful and highly entertaining. Dirty Looks is a modern re working of the strange and popular theme of infatuation. At each turn Follon provides a neurotic and obsessive re working of the theme that shows all the flaws, tragedies and chaos of love which results in a wonderfully engaging landscape of poems.
 

Follons Dirty Looks is a feast for the mind, serving out helping of brutal sexuality, sensuality, hope, despair,loss and an overwhelming physicality as the reader feels like a ghost in Follons tales. It is impossible not to be sucked into this delicious carnival of souls. Follon tackles the most heart wrenching of situations in a boisterous and playful manner as we are taken on a journey that takes inspiration from a multitude of locations and cultures from the Voodoo women to tales of Ancient Greece. We are whisked on tales of sadness, reflection and tenderness but these are over whelmed by Follons concern with the jealous, sexual and thoughtless side of love.
 

Despite the inherent darkness that exists In such subjects Follon still manages to write about them in a way that is lively, engaging and full of humour. She attacks the most difficult of subjects with a humour and incredible wit that make her poems the masterpieces they are. Dirty Looks succeeds in being dramatic and intensely gripping whilst having a somewhat offhand approach to humanities most over whelming weaknesses which results in a collection of poems that are both wild and beautiful.
 

Cheryl Follon is a master of words and imagery. Dirty Looks is a fiery mix of scathing truths and harsh brutality. Follon has the ability to approach the strangest of situations with a stance that one must describe as profoundly refreshing. Her approach is a warped version of reality, the truth from a certain perspective. There is a brutal honesty that rests at the heart of her poetry that draws the reader into her Carnival world. Follon is at all times boisterous, sharp and amusing, her humorous and occasionally nonchalant attitude towards subjects sucks in the reader. Follon avoids sentimentality like it was the plague and provides a wonderful re working of the Romanticism genre that is unforgiving, honest and brutal. Despite her rather crude and blunt nature Follon has a degree of likeability one wouldn't expect. Follons amazing grasp of words and use of imagery helps create poetry that is controversial and wild and defies expectations. She is what can only be described as a break though and a breath of fresh air for poetry. A poet that I would definitely recommend.