Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Sunday 4 November 2012

"Tasting Notes" by Matthew Stewart (Happenstance, 2012)

On Saturday 8th September I went down to the Free Verse bookfair where HappenStance was doing a roaring trade thanks to Matthew Stewart's freshly imported Ibérico ham, free with each poetry purchase. His "Tasting Notes" was launched at the event. In the photo you'll see meat cut "so thin that steel/ is visible below the meat". The blurb on a wine label tells only one side of the story. Here, on opposing pages, the blurb is confronted by the voice of the grape, or the wine. Zaleo Tempranillo tells us -

leaving arch after arch behind,
a silhouetted cathedral
where you're worshipping yet again
My glycerine falls down the glass,

These lines each have 8 syllables - no accident.

HappenStance is developing an interesting food-and-drink Outreach trend - an anthology of poems on the theme of chocolate is being planned, and a previous title did well at farmers markets.

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1 comment:

  1. Dear Tim,
    Many thanks for the link. I have added a reciprocal link to Litrefs. Best, John.

    ReplyDelete