We were invited into five very different worlds of the imagination during our December session. Reading a poem from half of the collections shortlisted for the T.S.Eliot Prize, the group was impressed by their deftness and their complex but subtle juxtapositions of times and places.
Eilean Ni Chuilleanain’s ‘On Lacking the Killer Instinct’ (from The Sun-fish) told three stories at once – the speaker of the poem coming across the hunting of a hare in a newspaper, bringing back the memory of seeing one after visiting her father in hospital dying, and the tale from 1921 when her father evaded capture by soldiers by taking refuge in a country kitchen. The poem drew us in, provoking as many questions as providing answers.
Two other poems concerned parents – Fred D’Aguiar’s ‘Leaving’ (from Continental Shelf) and Jane Draycott’s ‘Zulu’ (from Over). Each of them beautifully articulating the impulse to create myths, necessary and endless. At the other end of the family spectrum, Sinead Morrissey’s deceptively titled ‘Through the Square Window’ told the dream of an anxious new mother where the dead turn up to clean the windows of her house. We enjoyed the layering of references to breath and blueness; although the group was split on whether the poem was entirely convincing, despite its having won First Prize in the National Poetry Competition in 2007.
Philip Gross’s ‘Yalta, 1945’ (from The Water Table) took us onto a wider stage, revealing the short-sighted bureaucracy of the terms and treaties agreed after WWII. The Italian sonnet form made a tight structure to contain the damning considerations of papers, punctuation and pigeons for lunch. It was a poem, the group felt, that was very relevant to many of our current problems regarding war and borders, nationhood and immigration.
These five poems whetted everyone’s appetites for reading more of the shortlisted work as well as exploring the individual poet’s collections further. After the next T.S.Eliot Prize-based session in January we plan to take a poll to choose our own winner and then read that collection in February.
We rounded off the evening with a poetry book swap and everyone went home with at least one new collection in their pocket. This is something we can do more of, if folk like the idea. And do keep in touch on the blog about the T.S.Eliot poems if you weren’t able to make the session.
So, till next time we meet – at Blackwell’s on January 5th, 2010, 6.15pm-8pm – enjoy a relaxing time over the holidays, read lots of poetry and have a Happy New Year!
