Sophie Sparham
Please Mind The Gap
Poetry is a gateway to the soul, it is uncorrupted by a musical background and is far more than just a series of words. To be a poet demands courage, dedication and a willingness to put your entire being on display for everyone to see, and read. This collection of poems by Sophie Sparham is remarkable for many reasons. First off they capture your attention and hold it, just like that favourite song you have going round in your head. Anyone who has heard Sophie perform will automatically read this book in her voice and with her passion. That’s actually pretty amazing. To capture someone and hold them so captive because their words have become them is something only very few achieve.
Sophie’s work in this book deals with real life, her observations on the wrongs in society and sometimes just what we have become. There’s a grit to the compositions written, as they are, with a Derbyshire accent. There are times when you want to re-read something because it makes too much sense, then you understand, and smile, or even cry a little. To be able to communicate this level of emotion through word arrangement makes Sophie not just a poet but a chronicler, someone whose work when read years from now will give a true insight to our world today. In a time when the English language is being texted almost into oblivion a rather polite girl with dyslexia is preserving much of what Keats, Milton and Wilde to name but a few had striven to do, make words mean something.
Sophie Sparham is the most eloquent voice a generation could ever wish for.