# Benchwarmers - Paperback

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by **Nigel Kent** (Author)

_Benchwarmers,_ Nigel Kent's latest pamphlet, gives a voice to those who live their lives at the margins, such as the autistic boy, the looked-after child, the young offender, the anorexic, the painfully shy. They are life's outsiders, whom circumstances have conspired against: they are the also-rans, the subs confined to the bench, waiting for the call that never comes. These poignant, compassionate poems make visible the invisible and invite the reader to make a connection.

  

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"Nigel Kent's poems in this collection, skillfully sketch out the lives of the dispossessed; those who '...lost life's toss the moment they were born.' His poetry vividly captures the feelings of loss and exclusion experienced by the disenfranchised child, and offers us a sobering insight into how our society fails many young people for so many reasons. In his prose poem, _Cut_, Nigel Kent sets the sharpest rebuke: portraying the brutalizing effects of ostracism in the psyche of young minds, 'I leave my mark carve my initials in entitlement's bark with the blade they made.'

A chilling yet haunting pamphlet of poems."

-   Josephine Lay, author of _'A Quietus'_

  

"It's a recognisable feature of Nigel Kent's earlier collections that many of his poems notice and care about people on the margins of society, and this is also central to _Benchwarmers_. Through these poems Kent allows us a glimpse not only of the constraints, misunderstandings and sometimes cruelty his subjects face but also, in some cases, of how through their own empowered actions, and/or the love and attention some receive, they can - as two of the poems suggests - either 'speed away' or find their 'own way home'."

-   Phil Vernon, Author of _Poetry after Auschwitz I_ and _Watching the Moon Landing_

  

"Nigel Kent takes the reader on a powerful and poignant journey with each turn of the page. _Benchwarmers_ is a superb poetry collection. Highly recommended."

-   Patricia M Osborne, _Poet/Novelist_

  

"Powerful and unflinching. Compulsively readable. Defines class divides with sensitivity and dynamism."

-   Paul Brookes_, poet, editor of The Wombwell Rainbow_

  

**Number of Pages:** 30

**Dimensions:** 0.07 x 8.27 x 5.83 IN

**Publication Date:** April 20, 2023

## Details

- **Price:** 14.02 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 14.02 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Benchwarmers - Paperback

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