All of the Spaces

“This intensely lyrical sequence of poems shapes sculpture into words – vivid, accessible, compelling, but most of all, humane. Sculpture of Nine Verses, for instance, derives from a piece of abstract art, but through its finely controlled language transforms itself into a wonderful interconnected lyric of love, possession and survival.

This is the sort of poetry that gives poetry a good name.”

John Glenday

“Space and the artistic process are interrogated in this startling and graceful collection. Childhood, relationship tensions, artistic creativity and silence are key motifs in twenty-one poems which take much of their inspiration from art. Each piece is sculpted using experimental white space – line breaks, pauses, word patterns – techniques that lend the work all the visual features of an art installation… All of The Spaces is a rigorous and tender exploration of space in the domestic relationship and the arts. It employs concrete form and the lyrical with tight control, and great beauty.”

Ray Smart

Poetry

The green glass vase will break
in transit

so smash it now;
either you will try
to carry your memento, and it will crack,
or you will refuse to leave it behind
and never travel.

broken is the only way to carry
the vase,
each piece a doll’s house saucer
of light,
each a palm open
to the room where you pack to leave.

Beat the light into crystals
so that you are free to move –
and when you travel,
fold them in a cloth.

At your destination,
don’t try to reassemble
the vase;
its old form has gone –

but in the workshop at the lough-side
tip out the crushed pieces
and fuse them into something new.

Sculpture of Nine Verses
(Inspired by Saloua Raouda Choucair)

I’m drawn
            by interlocking pieces
                                                balance

grace between each line
how space alters          every note
            how                 each     limb

striking alone
                        is softened in shadow
when lying down together

                  I listen             cannot recall voice until
through silence
                        you return

the rise and fall of your imperatives
come here
                                                     listen you

            we are in umbra now
gaps between               take shape
                       open                and close

rearrange                    alter
                        features align
like verses –

                                    we elide –
hairline throat
nose                 our mouth        clavicle

nape                 the cages of our hearts
the pit of us
                                    our bald scars

deliverance

because I am typing your words
on tracing paper
                        typing as slowly

as saying a prayer
                        so that you
are the fixed centre around which

my eye moves
            because I am doing this
in a room I have made white –

because there has been too much blood
in our years together –
and because     it is only in this solace

of white           in this slow action
that the next word will come
            because of the space –

created by the time
                        between words
                        all of the spaces white

and because of the echo
            of the typewriter
in this empty room           empty

            save for a bed
white of course
                        because of this

you have delivered pink roses
with an abundance of leaves
their petals small tongues whispering

            their firm hearts layered
                        and beautiful to peel
it is because of the white

                         that the roses are here
imploring dancing                   dancing
under a candelabra of white papers

Reader reviews:

“This is an intensely powerful and accomplished book with great psychological depth, self-awareness and a refined spatial awareness. Many of the poems work with literal and metaphorical white space and treat it as a presence-in-itself which makes for contemplative yet often shocking poems.

A book of making and un-making - it loops through time and place with assurance. A lot of the poems are beautifully worked-over and pared-down. There is a wonderful confidence with form so the poem itself becomes an artistic representation of an idea, as well as just language. There are plenty of references to art but the poems are never derivative. They are utterly authentic and go beyond (my) ideas of ekphrasis into something looser, wilder and more associative. There is a pulse of lived violence that I found quite heart-breaking at times. A wonderful pamphlet. Deserves to be read widely.”

“This pamphlet of poems is as delicate and as carefully put together as the artworks (both real and figurative) the poet describes… ultimately, these poems show how in art, as in life, healing is possible.”