Poems from The Honest Ulsterman, New Starsman, Other Poetry, Poetry Durham, Poetry Review, etc.
It feels dated - slant-rhymed sonnets and hardly any first-person pieces. The register's elevated. Also there are quaint endings like "A robin in the hedge where he had hung/ His jacket flourished its red badge to make/ The broken earth a bargain for its song" ("Digging")
He's in control of the varied density of the pieces. "A Hanging Fox" is relaxed - it starts and ends with "There is no mistaking the sign/ By the pheasant run:/ The dog fox turning in the sun/ Strung on a yard of baler-twine// ... Decaying into loam/ Begins like this. The stale,/ Grisly totem tells its tale;/ The trespasser turns back for home". Other poems are beyond me - a line or the whole poem. "Boats Going Out" begins with "They draw vacuum from the quay,/ The watchers know it at their hearts;/ Each time could be the first or last/ And will rehearse infinitely." I get the gist, but don't understand the vacuum image, and why "at their hearts" rather than "in their hearts"? And that final word is the poem's only break in the iambs.
There are neat turns of phrase - "veiled by the lint of dust", "The fens drain down the last night into sludge", etc
I like "Continuous Performance" - a beach putting on a play for the tourists. I'm less keen on the historical, researched pieces.
No comments:
Post a Comment