A Review of Isabel Sobral Campos's Your Person Doesn't Belong to You

Poet and scholar Isabel Sobral Campos's new book, Your Person Doesn’t Belong to You (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2018), "a small collection, inspired by the surviving clips of The Passion of Joan of Arc, a 1928 film by Carl Dreyer," is reviewed by Udita Banerjee for Neon Books. "It is hard to believe that this work is Campos’s first book of poetry," writes Banerjee, "because the poems come with the depth and finesse of a much more experienced poet."

A personal favourite was “Conversation… a Peephole”, wherein the text is translated into Morse code and printed alongside the English. It does a few things right. It gives the poem a visual representation of dots and dashes, which is beautiful to look at, as though ants with their feet dipped in ink have been walking across the pages. It also allows for long pauses in the reading, which builds tension as we are swallowed whole by the happenings in Joan’s mind. Finally, the use of strikethrough, capitalisation and enlarged fonts breathes life into the stream-of-consciousness. There are many such pieces and almost every single one of them is unique in its presentation. Another example comes in the form of an untitled work which can be read in alternating lines, but also serially.

To thoroughly enjoy this collection it is important to have a handle on this very specific piece of history. I found myself having to look up Joan of Arc a few times in order to read up on her story (mostly told through the writings of other people). This does mean that, inevitably, some of the essence of a continuous reading is lost. It also requires a significant leap of the imagination to take the poet’s words as Joan’s own...

We love a good leap. Read the full review here.