Songs of every colour

As one would expect of a painter, Marianne’s poetry is strong on colour and line, on the subtle distinctions of the visual. In Wind Chimes, she sees herself in a mirror with the focussed objectivity of a portraitist. But that poem is no mere description of what she sees, but an expression of the anomaly that, however minute one’s attention, what one sees of oneself can never be what others see, can never perhaps be what is really there. There are also fine poems of imagination and of personal recollection, especially the heart-rending Out of time. Her choice of words is often both strikingly original and precisely right. Robin Gilbert, co-Director, Cheltenham Poetry Festival