Readers familiar with this poet's work will recognise the cityscape. In these 23 poems (written over 25 years; 1st, 2nd and 3rd person poems), there are 7 mentions of "night" and 4 of "ashes". Moths, dust, bruises and dreams feature too, the poems contributing to each other's atmosphere. But before we hit the streets, we spend several poems indoors. "Matt" in particular is claustrophobic - we're told about the walls and floor, then at the end other routes are cut off - "pull down the blinds". The next poem, "Bank Holiday", ends "In the back of your mind, a shutter is closing" (a shutter of a window or a camera?). Windows often are associated with blinds or curtains. Reality has to be read and interpreted.
Meanwhile, words begin to have substance, "coming loose/ from a book's page". The poems are visually tidy - no lines sticking out. 6 poems are in couplets and 6 in quatrains. The only end-rhymes are the bluesy ones in "Blue morning".
The natural world does get a look in though. Eyes, hands, mouths and body fluids are popular. Birds (gulls and feathers), wolves, trees and the sea (4 mentions) provide a source of imagery. Perhaps in "who augments a synthetic pillow/ with these bloodstained feathers" (from "The Cries") the natural and artificially-comforting are being combined.
I liked "Tattoos Inside", "Hidden City" and "Instrumental" the most, though the collection has a cumulative effect.
Other Reviews
- Peter Daniels (Bow-Wow Shop)
- Alice Willington (Eyewear)
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