‘Other Shepherds’ by Nina Kossman & Marina Tsvetaeva (Review)

After branching out to look at a little poetry earlier in the year, today sees me exploring more, with another work featuring an interesting twist. Where the previous book had the poet presenting the same poem in French and English, this time around it’s more about comparing different poems – by different people. If that sounds a little confusing, never fear. Come with me, and we’ll spend a while with two women with much in common, including their poetry and their country of origin. ***** Nina Kossman was born in Russia, but moved to the United States as a child. She’s written a number of books, both poetry and prose, but Other Shepherds (published by Poets & Traitors Press, review copy courtesy of the writer) is something a little different. In her preface, Kossman talks about her upbringing, and her discovery of a certain poet, Marina Tsvetaeva: But if it were possible to have a graph of personal development that reflected intangible things – or rather not things but states of the…