The Meanest Flower – Mimi Khalvati

·         There are a lot of notes on individual poems at the back of the book. Did you look at these whilst you were reading the poems or afterwards? Do you think you needed these notes? Did they detract from your enjoyment of the book in any way?

·         Khalvati is obviously skilled at writing in traditional forms – using forms like ghazal, sonnet, sestina etc. Were there any cases where you felt that the form was a distraction from the subject matter of the poem? Or did you think that there was a good balance?

·         The title poem “The Meanest Flower” seems to be primarily about aging and the way the mind yearns to revisit childhood and is written using the metaphor of flowers – do you think that this works?

·         There are a large number of ghazals (pronounced guzzle!) in the collection – did you understand this form and why the author used it? Did you like/dislike it?

·         The theme of this book is flowers – do you think the author has approached this subject matter in a fresh way? Are the flower poems successful?

·         Are there any poems that you liked more/less than others? Why?

·         There are a lot of references to literature and authors in the collection (eg Shylock, Shelley, La boheme, Lorca etc) – does this add to/detract from the quality of the work? Is she trying to be too clever?

·         What do you think of Kalvati’s use of repetition and rhyme?

·         The poem “The Mediterranean of the Mind” is written in memory of the poet Michael Donaghy – did you find the poem moving? Did you understand why the author has included quotes from Lorca? Do you think these quotes are adding anything important to the poem?