Songbook II’ truly exemplifies this eradication of the binaries of life and death; following the semi-mythical character off ‘Miss D’, it sets her both within the other speakers of the collection and the grieving parents. Meaning that, the speakers of Bernard’s other poems are either dead or alive, but Miss D occupies both binaries – she transcends the barrier between the living and the dead.

A sad and angry consolation, alert to the past... Surge is a mature work, with lyricism both poetic and pop... [One] of British poetry's most distinctive new voices' - The Daily Telegraph

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Obviously I HAD to read this book and then lo and behold it was long listed for the Dylan Thomas prize. Double whammy. Readalikes: In Nearby Bushes by Kei Miller, A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson and Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

The verse has anger and political purpose, but a rare lyrical precision, too. The combination is powerful' Sebastian Faulks, Spectator, Books of the Year 2020Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award; T.S. Eliot Prize; Forward Prize for Best First Collection; Dylan Thomas Prize; RSL Ondaatje Prize; John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize* The book forms an insightful, thought provoking, heartwrenching journey and provide convergence for them to occupy a space in history that they should rightfully have, rather than being forgotten. Here the morning of the first poem has turned to darkness, and the winter of New Cross becomes the summer of Grenfell. To tell the whole of – or explain the “hole” in – the story requires justice for those who have died. In spite of the traces of memory and the mourning rituals of commemoration, the truth “lives inside the house” and may never be known. This was a moving book of poetry that was mainly inspired by two tragedies in Britain: The New Cross Massacre and the Grenfall Tower Fire. There were some poems in Surge that I felt didn’t fit in with the others, and, whilst they didn’t detract from Bernard’s powerful pieces, they made it a jagged reading experience at times. I may be completely wrong but, for me, some of the placements felt a bit off, so I would’ve personally reorganised them to make the collection flow better.

the collection's major achievement is its unfailing attentiveness to the framing of history through the stories of individuals and collectives that the poet holds, urgently, ethically and so skilfully, in their hands.' - The Guardian This affecting poetic exploration of the New Cross Fire of 1981 (dubbed "The New Cross Massacre") is incantatory, lyrical and documentary. It makes a deep impact both on account of its own narrative and in the wake of Grenfell' - The Sunday Times This stanza seems to confirm that Miss D defies the boundaries of life and death, in the direct juxtaposition between ‘how many times has Miss D died?’ and ‘how many children does Miss D have?’ Although the stanza as a whole serves the contradiction between whether Miss D is dead or alive.This is more noticeable in the poem ‘Songbook’, which was inspired by Linton Kwesi Johnson’s ‘New Cross Massahkah (1983)’. The poem directly mimics dancehall rhythms and is written in a Patois, showing again Bernard’s incredible ability to write poetry that both speaks to itself and its history. Victoria Adukwei Bulley wrote on this exact idea, saying that the poems are spoken by‘voices who transcend notions of presence as contingent upon the physical body’. Bulley characterises the personas of the poems within ‘Surge’ as existing outside of the historical narrative; they exist separately to the binaries of life and death. Jay Bernard sings Songbook in performance, you can listen to it here to give an idea of how the upbeat melody of the poem contradicts the harrowing images of the fire within the poem. The masterful change of tone and rhythm – which is best conveyed through Bernard’s performance of the poem – seeks to mark the macabre mood which intensifies throughout the poem, culminating in stanza thirteen If there were ever to be a twenty-first century Auden, with all the invention and cultural understanding, understanding of tradition and sense of the speed and the human outcome of foul politics, Jay Bernard is it' - Ali Smith