The Breakfast Machine [Paperback]

Helen Ivory (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2010

Inside this collection, a chicken on squeaky tin legs is cooking you eggs and a squirrel plays tape-recorded birdsong high up in a tree. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse high-tail it into town as cowboys, and the fate of the world is decided by a game of cards. The Breakfast Machine is driven by the transformations of fairytale where the dark corners of childhood are explored and found to be alive and well in offices, kitchens, and hen-houses. There is more than a hint of East European darkness in Helen Ivory's third collection, which sits more comfortably alongside the animations of Jan Svankmajer than any English poetic tradition. ""A humorous and thoughtful exploration of the world""-The Midwest Book Review ""Ivory's particular style of free verse [is] also reminiscent of Raine and Heaney. The lines are extremely well crafted, and there is no sloppiness nor unnecessary embellishment, nor any sentence twisted out of shape. I found myself excited to see what each next poem contained, as if I were opening old jewelry boxes. Each poem was like a curious new picture from a scrapbook of someone's dreams.""-New Poetry

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Helen Ivory creates a troubled yet beguiling world rich in irony and disquiet. She possesses a strongly-grounded narrative voice which, combined with her dextrous transformative takes both on reality and on what lies beyond reality's surface, puts one in mind of the darker side of Stevie Smith who said that poetry "is a strong explosion in the sky". "The Breakfast Machine" is such an explosion in the sky of contemporary poetry' --Penelope Shuttle.

Provides a humorous and thoughtful exploration of the world. --The Midwest Book Review

"Ivory's particular style of free verse [is] also reminiscent of Raine and Heaney. The lines are extremely well crafted, and there is no sloppiness nor unnecessary embellishment, nor any sentence twisted out of shape. I found myself excited to see what each next poem contained, as if I were opening old jewelry boxes. Each poem was like a curious new picture from a scrapbook of someone's dreams." --New Poetry

About the Author

Helen Ivory was born in Luton in 1969, and lives in Norwich. She has worked in shops, behind bars, on building sites and with several thousand free-range hens. She has studied painting and photography and has a Degree from Norwich School of Art. In 1999 she won an Eric Gregory Award. She has published three collections with Bloodaxe Books, The Double Life of Clocks (2002), The Dog in the Sky (2006) and The Breakfast Machine (2010). She was awarded an Arts Council writer's bursary in 2005 and in 2008 an Author's Foundation Grant. She has taught creative writing for Continuing Education at the University of East Anglia for nine years and has been Academic Director there for five. She is an editor for the Poetry Archive, a tutor for the Arvon Foundation and is currently studying for a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at UEA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 62 pages
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd (October 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852248734
• ISBN-13: 978-1852248734
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,128,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Breakfast Machine, November 1, 2010

By 

Zach Hudson (Troutdale, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Breakfast Machine (Paperback)

Helen Ivory makes her poetry out of intriguing (and often disquieting) observations, often of impossible scenes or vignettes like something out of a strange dream. Add to this her love of metaphor, and you get something akin to Craig Raine and the Martian poets. Compare Raine's famous lines

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight

and rests its soft machine on the ground:

then the world is dim and bookish

like engravings under tissue paper.

...with Ivory's:

People are pebbles

and windows are mirrors.

When the moon is pushed

down the chimney's throat,

the music begins.

(or)

In this house, everything sleeps.

Even the walls have relaxed

and the roof is too tired

to hold up the weight of the sky.

What Helen Ivory adds beyond poems like Craig Raine's is that she trains her metaphors not on observations of the real, but meditations on the unreal. My favorite poem is this:

The Tooth Mouse

All of the teeth

brought by the Tooth Mouse

are piled high in an out-of-town

warehouse

They are gnashing

and grinding

and want to return

to the mouths of sleeping children.

It is said that they are whiter

than bone, cleaner

than melt-water, more innocent

than the children themselves.

But look at them here

all broken and angry,

chewing at the cold

metal door to get out.

The imagery of discomfort, childhood, and the dark side of maturing bring to mind Seamus Heaney. Ivory's particular style of free verse are also reminiscent of Raine and Heaney. The lines are extremely well crafted, and there is no sloppiness nor unnecessary embellishment, nor any sentence twisted out of shape. I found myself excited to see what each next poem contained, as if I were opening old jewelry boxes. Each poem was like a curious new picture from a scrapbook of someone's dreams.

5.0 out of 5 stars A humorous and thoughtful exploration of the world, October 15, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Breakfast Machine (Paperback)

There's more to most things than meet the eye. "The Breakfast Machine" is a collection of poetry from Helen Ivory, who explores many concepts and ideas in mythology and the world to provide a humorous and thoughtful exploration of the world. "The Breakfast Machine" is a fine pick for those looking for lighter British poetry. "Migration": The sky's starlings/are outside her window,/bustling the branches of a tree./She didn't ask for them,/doesn't' know their names;/still they are calling hers.