The Immigration Handbook
Published Seren 2016
ISBN 978-1781723210
Shortlisted for The Ted Hughes Award in 2016 Caroline Smith's 'The Immigration Handbook', distils her years of experience as an immigration and asylum caseworker in a North London, MP's constituency office and transforms the stories of violence, tragedy and resilience heard everyday into poetry that is deeply affecting and highly relevant to this most human of contemporary issues.
The Immigration Handbook has a unique perspective; told from a multiplicity of angles; we hear from those making decisions as well as those whose lives depend on them. Amid human and lyrical moments, the indifferent language of the bureaucrats runs like an icy stream. Written over a period of years, as layered and infused with experience as the documents she discusses; letters folded and refolded creased with time, Caroline Smith's poems are a moving record of global people movement and a counter view to the demonization of migrants in the daily news - the story of our time.
‘The detail is magnificent…there is an implicit tenderness and stoicism in the lives of these characters which shines through…’
‘Caroline Smith’s Brook Court has to be my No 1 choice. I longed to turn the page and find what happened to Anne-Marie. The poet doesn’t tell us, which is probably why this stayed with me for days.’
Thistles of the Hesperides
Published Flambard 2000
ISBN 1-873226-39-X
Thistles of the Hesperides is set in the vast deprived council estate on the outskirts of Edinburgh, made famous by Irvine Welsh in ‘Trainspotting’. Smith lived there for several years in the early eighties and knows the area well. Her poems tell of violent, unemployed, Poll Tax Britain. Taking a naturalistic approach, Smith employs Greek myths to give the poems structure. She weaves individual stories with contemporary political idealism. Reality and mythology collide so that the everyday and the mundane are seen, recognised and unexpectedly transfigured. By exploring mythic exaggeration she manages to capture the sheer extremity of life on the estate.
‘I admire/envy her ability to use myth so fruitfully…’‘ Caroline Smith again surprises us with her candour and sparkling freshness…’
‘These poems are moving uplifting and resonant.’
Flambard New Poets
Published Flambard Press 1997
ISBN 1-873226-10-1
This extended thirty-page narrative poem ‘Edith’ tells the true life story of Edith, a Lancashire woman born in Victorian England. She would move to Glasgow to become a nanny for 35 years. But she had a dark secret central to her life that would only emerge after her death.
‘Caroline Smith’s selection is an amazing tour-de-force… a fiercely strong piece of work which deserves some sort of award for story telling.’
‘What strikes me particularly is the pervading feeling of love the poem evokes.’
‘I find the similes arresting, often the result of careful observation.’
