The Shape of Rainbows

The most striking thing about Neal Zetter’s collection is its sheer energy. It bounces and bounds from subject to subject, driven on by short lines and driving rhymes. He certainly lives up to his own claim in The Poem Machine: ‘Creating odes, /ballads and rap,/You want free verse,/It’s here on tap/My works are one/long endless stream./ I am the poem machine!’ Here are poems filled with the thrill of words and a love of life. The Poet Tree has ‘gazillions of poems for everybody…Rhythms roll down from its branches to its roots/Do you want inspiration/Come pick yourself from fruit.’ Even the first day of a new school year gets an exhausted thumbs up. These poems surprise you, bite you, infect you with relentless enthusiasm, drive you to emulation (nearly there, but not quite!). Lucky are the schools that book his workshops. I’d like to be at the back of the class.