Exploratory and alive to the senses, The Museum of Disappearing Sounds creates new perspectives on language and the

world in which it exists. The disappearing sounds of Zo S oulding!s new collection may "e either in the rich sonic environments that the poems o"serve or in the resonance of words themselves, which exist in traces of speech and "reath. S oulding!s characteristically inventive approach to form emerges in a fractured sonnet se#uence "ased on the coincidences of room num"ers$ repeated actions "uild haunting interior spaces that the reader is invited to enter, each poem "ecoming a room in which sound %"ounces off four walls,& as memory accumulates in the su"tle rhythms of everyday life. These poems can provo e states of eerie unease or of passion evo ed with shimmering densities of ver"al texture. Several years ago, ' presented a conference paper with what ' thought was the satisfyingly witty title (Entitled to Mean!. 'ts thrust was the significance of titles ) chiefly of poems. 't is therefore important to me that S oulding calls her new collection The Museum of Disappearing Sounds, "ut the poem that names the collection is called (The Museum for Disappearing Sounds! *my emphasis+. This is a difference which resonates throughout the collection, which is profoundly concerned with accent and nuance, the way in which a shift of tone or punctuation can "ring a"out an eddy of change. The Museum of Disappearing Sounds The disappearing sounds of Zo Skouldings new collection may be either in the rich sonic environments that the poems observe, or in the resonance of words themselves, which exist in traces of speech and breath. The !an in the !oone takes its title from a "#th century work of science fiction in which lunar inhabitants can communicate their thoughts via music alone. $ut rather than aspiring to reach beyond language, these poems focus on the spaces that words occupy, looking at how a sentence reverses itself between two pairs of eyes or noting the distance drifted by a word shaken loose from border controls. Skouldings characteristically inventive approach to form emerges in a fractured sonnet se%uence based on the coincidences of room numbers. &epeated actions build haunting interior spaces which the reader is invited to enter, each poem becoming a room in which sound bounces off four walls, as memory accumulates in the subtle rhythms of everyday life. These poems can provoke states of eerie unease, or of passion evoked with shimmering densities of verbal texture. 'e can feel the ice in (wydyr )orest *)ree+ing under feathered, water landscapes-. .rovisional landscapes in which the ground itself is aslant call for an active state of perception in which / can do more dangerous things ,0ust with my eyes. 1xploratory and alive to the senses, The Museum of Disappearing Soundscreates new perspectives on language and the world in which it exists.