He's won the Cardiff International and Smith Doorstep competitions. Peterloo and Shoestring have published 2 of his books. This 136 page book has poems from The Dark Horse, The Rialto, The Poetry Review, Antigonish Review, etc.
In the first section, "Daemons", I think I must be missing the point of most of the poems. When I do think I get them they seem rather slight. "Cottage" for instance takes 21 lines to point out that long ago in an abondoned cottage "rituals/ of birth and death/ and work/ were acted out" but finally "The roof came in,// then cold stars".
Writing about the sea, "Here on the shore we build everything// in imitation of it,/ our benches like skiffs,/ our houses like upturned shells" (p.25) which sounds good, but then there's "an oystercatcher call somewhere, sadly" (p.30). "Dumfries Schoolgirls, 1960s" is about looking at an old photo.
Section Two's entitled "Hyperborea". It has "Achaen galleys/ weaving a net on the world/ island by island// linking seas and sea-peopes/ before the tyranny/ of history books lovingly/ tracing coasts like lips" (p.50), but on p.51 there's "Grave Goods" which looks very minor. On p.53 is "The sea has our story by heart/ it will take you to your love,/ it will sing while we sleep.// The sea confusingly/ is the land's heart"
I like "Epistle to Robert Burns during a depression in the North Atlantic". And "The Conversion of Sheep" is fun. I like the idea of "The shades of one shade" where everything is "all the shades of one shade ... the glint of a sea loch". I can imagine poems like "Dania Ersheid, on her way home from school" getting grunts of approval at a reading.
Section Three's "Ekphrasis". Dialect's used more here (to contrast more sharply with the scenes from Greek myths by John Waterhouse.) - "Only took a crate of Carlsberg/ to turn Ulysses' men intae pigs" (p.75).
Section Four's "Latro". "364 BC" is in a loose "abab" form. "Reflections on Heritage in a Galloway Harbour" includes "Galloway - see it if you're lost/ or a hippy or wonder/ where Martin Bell ended up -/ or if you're a star gaze,/ no firelight there/ just the rose petal light/ of online Daily Mails/ in the slippered dusk", which is promising. "Mongrels" begins thus - "With Robert Burns a sex pest,/ Irn Bru diluted to prevent seizures/ and Greyfriars Bobby/ exposed as a clever gang/ of street dogs,/ we must doubt even more/ the props".
Sometimes he slips in a prose piece like "A Proper Joke" or "Road Trip", though the layout remains poetic.
No comments:
Post a Comment