The Monster That Ate the Universe

Okay I admit it. I came to this book somewhat snobbishly thinking ‘another cheap paperback aimed at the school market’. How wrong I was and how bad to judge a book by its cover… Yes this is clearly aimed at ticking boxes on the National Curriculum. And yes it does this but is also a great collection of often deceptively clever poems. In ‘Haiku’ teachers will find the perfect description of the form. Its wide subject range enables poetry to be used in classes other than English Literature. It drags the reader’s attention deeper into the world of poetry by getting them to ask who was William Carlos Williams or Edward Lear etc.

The poems in this book work on many levels, cover many forms and range from jokey pieces to several poems on death. Roger Stevens makes his poetry look effortless but you will close this collection with a head full of scary carrots, snow Buddhas and chuckling chutney. I shut this book grinning and thinking with his wonderful poem ‘Six Eggs’ humming through my mind.