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Losing, Finding is longer than Wanda Barford's previous collections and differs from them in being divided into three distinct sections. 'Sixteen Songs for Michael' is a sequence of elegaic poems for her husband, exploring the grief of parting - through death - after forty-one years of marriage. 'About Silence', the longest section, ranges widely over political, social and Jewish as well as personal themes. The book concludes with 'From Childhood Tongues', revealing Wanda Barford to be a gifted verse translator from three of the languages she acquired as a child.
‘Wanda Barford is a writer with a powerful mix of known microcosm and a breathtaking feel for period and context. She is a different, liberating voice for crying out the human situation, not with a grumble, but with acceptance.’ — Stephen Wade, The North
‘At its best, Wanda Barford's poetry offers power without stridency, She's adept at finding eloquence in simple images.’ — Michael W. Thomas, Other Poetry
‘With considerable economy and skill, Barford relives moments and episodes in the couple's life together. Particularly affecting is the poem “Houses”, which encapsulates not only the various homes they shared, from their “tumbledown house” in Africa “with dynasties of spiders living in the cracks” to their homes in North London, but also the tenor of their relationship.’ — Emma Klein, The Tablet
‘Wanda Barford is quoted as saying: “Isn't all writing a form of translation? Translating inchoate emotions and semi-crystalised thoughts into the currency of words.” Barford is also, coincidentally, a literal translator, and the third section of her book includes some beautifully poised versions of poems by Neruda, paz, Baudelaire and Verlaine.’ — Micheline Wandor, The Jewish Chronicle
Losing, Finding costs £7.50 and was published in 2002.
ISBN: 978-1-873226-52-0