Independent Press Day, Leicester

I'd like to congratulate Ross Bradshaw and the staff at De Montfort University for organizing the excellent Independent Press Day last Saturday. There was a good turnout, and business was brisk; I actually made a small profit, which is probably a first for me at a book fair. I was pleased to meet various poetical persons, including George Ttoouli, Mark Goodwin, Simon Perrill, Matt Nun and Jane Commane, and I finally unmasked the mysterious blogger Kathz (whose identity I can't reveal here, of course). I only attended two events, as I had a stall to run, but they were both excellent. John Lucas's talk on the origin of sayings that his mother used to use was endlessly fascinating. But the highlight for me was the launch of Cleaves Journal, with a reading by Jennifer Cooke (the editor of this issue), Mark Goodwin, Simon Perril and Dan O’Donnell-Smith. I liked Jennifer Cooke's nervy delivery which suited her disjunctive and witty poetry. I've been following Mark Goodwin's work for some time (having reviewed his collection 'Else'), and it was interesting to hear how the he used line-breaks when reading - making them into pauses - and how he emphasised the alliterative nature of the verse. Simon Perril also turned out to be an excellent reader, or rather performer, of his work, and on the strength of his reading I bought his pamphlet 'A Clutch of Odes', which I hope to be reviewing shortly on this blog. Dan O'Donnell Smith was the youngest reader, and read for the shortest time, which was a shame, as I'd like to have heard more of his process-driven poetry.

“Else” by Mark Goodwin (pub. Shearsman, 2008, ISBN: 978-1905700-97-4. £7.95)

I first encountered Mark Goodwin's poetry as editor of this e-zine (Litter), and I thought it was striking, individual work that didn't fit into any current category. Goodwin's upbringing on a farm and activities as a climber and walker colour the poetry, which presents an unsentimental picture of the natural world. Some of this work could be seen as contemporary pastoral, in the sense that it contains social comment in the context of a rural, or urban/rural setting (the rural backdrop here offset by urban blight). In 'Ways Through an Outskirts Estate' the choice of detail holds the reader's attention, while the poem makes a tangential comment on social conditions:

where eight-year-olds of uncertain
ages wander in strangely dangerous
grubby packs

The language is rugged with Anglo-Saxon diction and alliterative metre, and in keeping with that, some poems are like riddles, particularly the intriguing “Peter’s Selfless Portrait”:

My paper is hard dark. Deep
as Said, yet smells of voltage-white;
the tingle of fish slipping.

and we have these lines from the poem “Hoar Frost”:

We wake
to a new world, white and shatterable...

...a brilliance of crazed white pages; a collage
of crinkled manuscripts.

There's always a danger in this type of writing of overdoing it, and there are one or two places when Goodwin does this; but overall, this poem, like many others in this collection, shows a skillful handling of pace and sound judgment about how far he can push the phrasing.

To read the full review, click here...