Poems from Poetry Review, Stinging Fly, etc.
Lines begin with capitals, and stanzas of a poem are more or less equally sized rectangles, making the pieces look like poems. Many pieces are a little more than a page - removing some of the line-breaks would have saved a lot of paper. I'm struggling to find much that's worthwhile - I don't understand what poems like "The Poet's Dream" are trying to do.
"A Singing contest on Thorn Hill" has an "xaxa" rhyme scheme ("country" rhyming with "bloody" etc).
Here are some extracts -
- Somewhere around here, in a postwar ex-council house/ My stepdad will be falling asleep/ In front of localised cremation ads./ What dreams of your own are you siloing away/ In the folds of those vintage ermine coats? (p.15)
- In summer, bindweed flowers like thousands/ Of tiny dish antennae. 'Environmental Protection'/ Is a misnomer. Phone them and it just rings. And rings. (p.27)
- a vein throbs like a slow-moving worm (p.29)
- The old muscles of his adolescence/ Come out of retirement, and stretch/ His tattoos into nonsense symbols (p.49)
No comments:
Post a Comment