Poems (1966-1996) from Argo, Stand, TLS, etc. Mostly short-lined - e.g. "Ache/ and age/ prosper/ by the grey stone", or "I say to my dog,/ "Clear, acre, bare coppice/ three years' growth/ brings ten nightingales."". "Blood" has a plot spread over 23 lines - 1 has 1 word, 4 have 2 words, none has more than 6. Why? "1381/1981" has end-rhyme and structure. Here are other extracts -
- We sat together, songs wobbled./ They were putting up pictures,/ I didn't feature,/ bad smell on a west wind./ Everything smiled, death too (p.57)
- Along the riverbanks/ men/ are going to work/ in the invaders' mills (p.66) Why the linebreaks?
- I am the weeper, I am the tear. Never too much,/ never enough (p.84)
- The broken breaks,/ what's crooked goes awry./ Decline runs down/ and the sliding slip./ My poem becomes a poem,/ Mary my Mary. (p.99)
I don't understand the aesthetic of these poems. There's too little cohesion for my tastes. If in compensation the images were more striking, I'd be happier.
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