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.
Showing posts with label Philip Ward. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philip Ward. Show all posts

Saturday, 15 August 2026

"Maps on the ceiling" by Philip Ward (Oleander press, 1970)

It's a pamphlet of poems, many of them short - often there are 2 poems per page. There's often end-rhyme - regular and irregular. I don't understand all the pieces. I like "Lunatic St." and "In Another Sense". I'm interested by passages like "Infinity is where/ in a hypothetical dispensation/ some of us meet:/ bricks and Bushmen,/ ticks and parallel lines,/ lakes, ideas, and the batteries of cars" (from "Infinity"). I think some of the short pieces don't do enough - e.g. "A knot in oak, a flaw in emerald:/ these concentrations of attention/ rightly resist carping./ What if the blemish were perfect?/ See the mole on her neck!"