For years poetry was something I stayed well away from because I felt it would never stand on the same stage as novels however, there are many collections I have read recently that have totally changed my mind. While Bathing Strictly Prohibited wasn't one of these collections that had a profound impact on me as a reader, it still thrills with many conflicting emotions and ideas throughout.

***This book was reviewed for Troubadour Publishing Limited via Netgalley

Bathing Strictly Prohibited is a beautiful, haunting collection of poetry, whose language evokes times long past, breathing shape to the ephemeral. The poems are divided into two categories- places, and moments. Some of my favourites were Dawn in the Alps, On the site of a former power station in the Midlands, Dunstanburgh Castle, Evening in the mountains, The bus depot, 'Bathing Strictly Prohibited’, In the garden at Cragside, Napoleon at Waterloo, The end of the siege, A Christmas cake, and Song of the forest. These particular poems resonated with my own spirituality and values most, or else called to the anthropologist and archaeologist in me.

The poems in this collection are ones that enchant the mind, and enthrall the senses, waking the thrum of Awen within and rousing dormant creativity. You are invited to see the slumbering history all around you, in monuments and abandoned sites where once people dwelt, or to find in the most mundane of objects, say….a Christmas cake… a bewitching trip around the globe. I would love to read more poetry by Mr Rhodes.

📚📚📚📚📚 Highly recommended