Opposite of Cabbage

Rob A. Mackenzie was born in Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh. His previous work includes The Good News (Salt 2013) and The Opposite of Cabbage (Salt 2009) and two pamphlets: Fleck and the Bank (Salt 2012), which dramatized a bank employee’s life during the financial crisis, and The Clown of Natural Sorrow, (HappenStance Press 2005). He is reviews editor at Magma Poetry and his poems, reviews and articles have been published in Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Dark Horse, The North, Shearsman Magazine and many other publications. Phil Clement wrote in the New Welsh Review of The Good News: “It feels as though the poems are charged, booby-trapped… The joy in reading this collection is found in riddling your own perspectives on fate, faith, travel and death.”

• Light Storms from a Dark CountryVoicesThe ListenersWhite NoiseScottish Sonnet Ending in AmericanFallen Villages of the NorthMoving OnScotlandsNuclear SubmarinesEveryone Will Go CrazyThe LoserWhile the Moonies are Taking Over UruguayBerlusconi and the National GridShopping ListPatenting TheBananasScotlandHow New York You AreThe LookHot ShitSlimmingGirl Playing Sudoku on the Seven-FifteenHomes of the Future ExhibitionIn the Last Few SecondsBenedictionHospitalVisiting HourAdvice from the Lion Tamer to the Poetry CriticA Creative Writing Tutor Addresses his Star PupilThe KingdomMarried Life in the NinetiesThe Deconstruction IndustryHangover HotelEdinburgh in SummerJacko Holed Up In Blackfriars Street B and B??My Dentist, AnielaBreaking the HoodooSevenling (Elizabeth had II)Plastic CorkSky BlueThe Preacher’s EarHoliday at the New ButlinsGlory BoxThe Scuffle

Nudging at the curious in the everyday is typical of Mackenzie’s work ... These are honest poems with a humane touch that takes them beyond their surface familiarities. A small book but it’s consistently interesting.