'At Risk' by Diana Cant
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"...a disturbing but memorable pamphlet, giving abused and disturbed children their own voice, all told in crystal clear poems. Thoroughly recommended." — Rennie Halstead, reviewing 'At Risk' in London Grip.
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'At Risk' 2021
ISBN: 978-1-913329-57-0 Paperback, 34 pages, 21 x 14.8cm RRP £8.00 |
"These poems give a harrowing voice to some of the most deprived and abused children in our society. Diana Cant’s ability to distil into poetry the powerful emotions communicated by these young people in therapy, gives the poems an unusual impact. They also communicate the effect of these children’s harsh and ugly truths on the therapist who struggles to listen to what often feels nearly unbearable to hear. And yet the poems are hauntingly beautiful and can be read and re-read, helping the reader to bear to hear what the children need to say."
— Monica Lanyado Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. Author of The Presence of the Therapist and Transforming Despair to Hope. "In her role as a child psychotherapist, Diana Cant has provided comfort and support to young people whose lives have been marked by difficult events; as a poet, she has extended that role to give voice and agency to speakers who are often not heard. Cant’s poetic gifts are such that she tells these harrowing stories with great empathy, never forgetting the human suffering behind them, while highlighting the humour and resilience of their subjects. This is a tough book, but one created out of love and a genuine desire to represent these brave survivors"
-- Tamar Yoseloff |
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"Diana Cant gives us twenty-four poems, thirteen of which are supported by footnotes. This is where the statistics come in. A poem in the voice of (or about) a young person trying to manage, say, dyslexia or an eating disorder, tells an individual story. Poet (and reader) focus, rightly, on that unique voice. Each voice, however, is part of a wider social context and is speaking up for those with similar need for support. Under ‘Playground’, it’s salutary — and horrifying — to be told that 42% of children aged 10-15 years in England and Wales experienced some form of bullying in the year ending March 2020, and that 17% of those experienced cyber-bullying."
D A Prince (Sphinx Reviews, February 2022)
D A Prince (Sphinx Reviews, February 2022)
Sue Wallace-Shaddad reviews 'At Risk' in issue 5 of The Alchemy Spoon (p 92)
"The subtitle of this pamphlet, ‘The lives some children live’, can be read as both statement and euphemism: Diana Cant unpacks some of the wide-ranging dysfunctional backgrounds and emotional turmoil of children at risk from the viewpoint of the listening role of therapist. She reimagines their stories to ensure confidentiality, giving the reader interpretations which are both sensitive and poignant.
[...]
And yet within these poems there is room left for hope. In ‘Callum v County Education Authority; [2018]; Court of Appeal’, a boy with dyslexia is able to tell a judge about the bullying he suffered: ‘he opened up his life and he was heard’. In the pamphlet’s final poem ‘When she was four...’ a girl passes through a ‘swerve and wobble as she reached thirteen’ and now at twenty-four, she is mistress of her balance and rides a unicycle waving to the astonished crowds as she cruises into life.
There is much to admire and to learn from in this pamphlet."
"The subtitle of this pamphlet, ‘The lives some children live’, can be read as both statement and euphemism: Diana Cant unpacks some of the wide-ranging dysfunctional backgrounds and emotional turmoil of children at risk from the viewpoint of the listening role of therapist. She reimagines their stories to ensure confidentiality, giving the reader interpretations which are both sensitive and poignant.
[...]
And yet within these poems there is room left for hope. In ‘Callum v County Education Authority; [2018]; Court of Appeal’, a boy with dyslexia is able to tell a judge about the bullying he suffered: ‘he opened up his life and he was heard’. In the pamphlet’s final poem ‘When she was four...’ a girl passes through a ‘swerve and wobble as she reached thirteen’ and now at twenty-four, she is mistress of her balance and rides a unicycle waving to the astonished crowds as she cruises into life.
There is much to admire and to learn from in this pamphlet."
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Diana Cant is a Consultant Child Psychotherapist who has worked for many years with highly distressed and depressed young people, many of whom are often in residential care. She won the inaugural Child Psychotherapy Essay Prize, has written many articles and professional papers, and contributed to mental health programmes on BBC 4. She has an MA in Poetry Writing from Newcastle University through the Poetry School in London. She is a member of the Mid Kent Stanza Group, and the Canada Water Poetry Group. Her work has been published in Finished Creatures, The Alchemy Spoon, Brittle Star, Ink, Sweat and Tears, and Nine Muses, Her poetry has also appeared in various anthologies such as Humanagerie, Eighty Four, Places of Poetry and Beyond the Storm. She was longlisted in the Ginko Prize, 2019, and commended in the Hippocrates Prize in 2021. Her pamphlet, Student Bodies 1968, was published by Clayhanger Press in 2020.
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