“ A chandelier of winter hunger began to reverberate inside us, churning globules of acidity. Logic vacated the space behind our foreheads. We crawled over each other, creating fender benders that made our teeth knock together. We leaned over heaped plates and binged on pearls, smooth white stones with properties to take the appetite away. Their luxury was too heavy, made the abdomen cave in. From then on everything went close cropped, the mind only capable of capturing the illusion of an image, but not its essence. We considered this to be our most brilliant moment”

This is from “Definitions” and the images created mirror most of this collection, the poems have that metallic taste of 5am, with the night fading to a tannic grit on your teeth. This is the detritus of good times, where hope is a commodity long since exchanged for a series of moments.

Amphetamine Heart, is Liz Worth’s first collection of poetry, but not her first book, there are a couple of others, including a history of the Toronto punk scene* - which makes sense here as you can feel the spirit of that movement permeate these poems - the honesty here is visceral, raw, confrontational. Beyond the subject matter of this poetry, what I also like was her use of language phrases such as “The chafe of sleep walked my eyelids raw” and “Outside, it’s cold enough to snow, the hack of the wind a gut hook knife”, the imagery they burn onto your retina stays, making you recast your perception to allow for this glimpse into the chaos, paranoia and self-harm at the cold centre of this collection.

This poetry is deeply personal, exploring the darkest corners of her psyche with that most powerful of magnifying tools – language, the words shining a path through the fragments of her life, highlighting moments as though they were ostraca tossed aside. Yet it would be unfair to say this is all dark, there’s a humour that pokes out at the strangest moments, lines such as “comes dressed in lipstick shades named for the colours of abuse” and “ chewing on cuticles is not enough for morning protein”.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/amphetamine-heartliz-worth.html ( )

When most people think of poetry, they think of love poems or rhyming couplets. Liz Worth presents a different kind of poetry. Her work focuses on sex and excess, a gritty kind of poetry. Her use of imagery allows the reader to perfectly visualize each poem, putting her right in it, allowing her to experience it even if the situation is unfamiliar, which it will be to few. Her use of alliteration adds to this by giving it a musical quality, making each poem perfect for a slam. While definitely for more mature audiences, the poems within this collection will resonate with many, for better or worse. ( )