In the Quaker Hotel by Helen Tookey David Borrot of “open water”

of “open water”

’— Rishi Dastidar‘A beautiful short work that manages to maintain intimacy even in the aphoristic

instead of arranging them chronologically

voice-over and compendium of notes-to-the-self

These beautiful lines are from the book’s title sequence

In the Quaker Hotel by Helen Tookey David Borrot of “open water”In the title poem, the speaker sits at the window of a small hotel room. The room is a holding zone, a temporary stopping place between memory and possibility. In the Quaker Hotel is full of questions about the world. Rooted in nature, the poems are fearful for it. They move out through identifiable landscapes (Merseyside, north Wales, Nova Scotia, southern France) to off kilter, tilted places beyond our immediate reality. We are temporary guests in