In Battery Rocks, the latest poetry collection by Katrina Naomi, the Cornish sea near her adopted home is not just a body of water – mostly cold – or a force of nature, but a lover, a friend and a metaphor for uncertainty. Naomi’s lyrical poems show that in life’s often harsh reality, it’s the simple things that mean a lot such as a costume borrowed from a friend that stops you sitting “fully clothed, feeling like someone’s mother”.  

The book is divided into seasons; though most poems are introspective, there are some that see the writer observing others – such as the men in Santa beards taking a winter swim in The Men, and the hesitant boys in Boys And Men. The Bathing Water Quality Inspector – an account of the non-biodegradable and toxic waste that can be found in our oceans – is a disturbing read. 

Interspersed between the rocks and the waves there are a few non-water-related poems: How To Be A Cormorant has a style reminiscent of Amanda Dalton’s poem How To Disappear, and Cutting Through is a poignant recounting of grief after the loss of a parent – but I must admit I longed for a little more dry land. 

To Naomi, the sea is both an ally that embraces and an enemy that launches ‘a twice daily ambush on the town’. Her vivid descriptions and well-observed details make the reader feel as if they are experiencing the ebb and flow with her.