What I've Been Reading 2
Three recently published independent publications which are well worth spending some time with.
Contents
When Does the Dancing Start? - Amanda Samm Just Like Lois Lane - Amanda Samm Iron Harvest - Mick Jenkinson Unbroken - Mick Jenkinson Orthicon - David Perlmutter Historical Context - David Perlmutter
When Does the Dancing Start? - Amanda Samm
This is Amanda’s fifth poetry collection. It is published by Sherwood Handcraft an excellent independent concern created by Sue Jarvis, exclusive to Read to Write, the Doncaster and Mexborough based poetry initiative created by Ian Parks.
Amanda is a valued Member of the Read to write community, and pays tribute to it within the pages of this book, in the poem Rendezvous
There’s warmth in the company of these friends that transcends the simple rendezvous.
And she is right. Since its inception over a decade ago, Read to Write has created a welcome home for local poets and watched many of them grow in both ability and ambition. It is a fact that without Read to Write, there would be no Sixty Odd Poets, No Starbeck Orion and no Fig Tree.
Amanda’s Poetry is often humorous, following a brisk upbeat rhyming pattern in a vein reminiscent of Pam Ayres or Victoria Wood. But it would be a mistake to dismiss her as a trivial humorous poet, particularly in the light of this collection, which includes a number of poems which break the mould and show a depth of thought and reflection that I for one had not discerned previously.
The title piece, which opens the collection, is jolly enough, but contains a yearning reminiscent of the old Peggy Lee song Is That All There Is? And scattered throughout the rest of the volume are echoes of this yearning, as Amanda tackles quite serious topics such as mental health, human relationships, and personal identity.
Silent Scream speaks of the experience of being alone and confronting the weight of all of you swallowed down. In conversational style, Amanda asks the reader – do you feel this too? It is a piece that reaches inside and shares something personal , hitting the mark with accuracy.
Night Thunder is one of a number of poems which tackle the long hours of night its opening stanza contains a very vivid image
The first rumbles started with The same resonance as wheelie bins Assembled for a street protest
Perhaps my favourite piece is Just Like Lois Lane, which whilst ostensibly about meeting someone in real life for the first time after an internet based introduction, picks up themes of identity which are explored further in The Me You See on the very next page.
I am really looking forward to Amanda’s next collection and seeing where her writing journey takes her from here.
Just like Lois Lane - Amanda Samm
What you don’t know is Even though I’ve seen your image on my screen and seen your moving picture on my phone When we meet I will not know you’re you. My eyes and brain don’t recognise or comprehend the change to three dimensions after seeing you in two. What you don’t know is I’m terrified you might be someone else A stranger that I haven’t met And I will feel a fool. I’ll be too shy to speak. I might make a mistake But if it’s you, then you will think me rude and wonder why I dodge your eye What you don’t know is The slightest change will spin me with despair Like if you changed your hair of shirt, or tie. And if you’ve changed from contact lenses into specs Then don’t expect that I will know it’s you. I will see Clark Kent and not the Superman you were when we first met on screen and it will take a while to recognise your smile and we’ll have to start again Just like Lois Lane. **** When Does the Dancing Start is available from Amanda's Website - Yorkshire Pen < < <
Iron Harvest - Mick Jenkinson
Mick Jenkinson is another poet who has benefitted immensely from the Read to Write experience. He is both a poet and songwriter and comes from from Doncaster, the spirit of that town and the county surrounding it lending its atmosphere to much of his writing.
It is present in Iron Harvest’s opening piece This River…
My God will probably reside beside the River Don
…and it appears throughout the collection, being there again in the final piece Past Brodsworth.
In Belonging, Mick looks at what a love of the place where you are from is all about…
To ask ‘country or county’ is to miss the point Its not something that is easy to articulate, And neither is it a matter of volition.
In his poetry, Mick makes an art of expressing things that are not easy to articulate. Sometimes using devices such as the as the villanelle or sonnet, and sometimes in structures of his own, he creates vivid pictures of moments in time with deeper resonances and significances beyond the moment pictured.
Mick enjoys the romantic love poem as shown in pieces such as Falling in Love, Enduring Marks, and Halki (which is set far from Doncaster) …
Then there’s you with your golden hair tumbling as you come pouring Metaxa and drawing your chair close
But in addition he can show a side vulnerable to the dangers of romantic attachment in pieces such as The Wrong Man, and The Hurt…
She shows you heaven with your face in the dirt for when she comes, she brings the hurt
Many of the poems in Iron harvest speak of endings and decline. Leaves are Falling and Half Past Autumn achieve this by contrasting the passage of the seasons with our lives. The Old Year and Seeds explore this theme further, and the concept of time is central to The Horologist, a poem that holds a particular resonance to me as my father was a watch and clock repairer.
Mick, like me, enjoys writing poetry on the theme of fathers, and his villanelle One Thing More, which deals with his own dad’s death is one of my favourites. However, I would like to share another father poem from the collection here. The magnificent Unbroken. which does so much more than mourning the loss of a well loved mug.
Unbroken - Mick Jenkinson
It was always too delicate by half, conjuring memories of Saturdays - armchair afternoons, racing on TV, cradled safe in the crook of your huge arm; the willow pattern mug always steaming. In my usual rush to get home from work, placed the half-drunk cuppa on the van roof, loaded up, drove away without thinking. **** Iron Harvest by Mick Jenkinson is available from Amazon <<<
Orthicon - David Perlmutter
Orthicon is not poetry. It is what is known as Speculative Fiction, which is a branch of Science Fiction, or a branch of fiction which has a world other than our own as its setting. I wanted to review it for two reasons. Firstly, David has supported the Sixty Odd project from the beginning and often chips in after an article with thoughtful comments. Secondly, he has submitted a number of publications to the Promote Indie Lit project, and as this is a project which I support, I wanted to demonstrate that it works, and to encourage others to read and/or review his work.
Orthicon runs on a premise similar to that of the film Who framed Roger Rabbit? In that cartoon Characters - Toons are actually alive and active. It is darker than Roger Rabbit, having a socio-political element which places it closer to Alan Moore’s Watchmen in style. In the story, a right wing government, intolerant of the toons and the effect they have on the society’s children, banishes them to a distant planet. The tale unfolds from a variety of viewpoints, both toon and human, and is peppered throughout with Perlmutter’s satirical sense of humour.
At the time of writing this review, Orthicon and much of David’s other work including the very interesting looking Encyclopedia of American Animated TV Shows was offered at a prohibitively high price on amazon. I didn’t feel that I could recommend it on that basis. However, I contacted David to share my misgivings, and he told me that he intends to serialise it on his Substack. So, if you want to read it, head over and subscribe to Made From What’s Not Real, then buckle up for the ride.
From Historical Context (Orthicon) - David Perlmutter
The presidential election of 2--- has already earned for itself the status of one of the most contentious campaigns in American history, easily surpassing the sordid conflicts that engulfed that of 2000. Amid constant allegations of improprieties on both sides, some of which were justified while others were merely conspiracies, a curious political manipulation began to emerge. Having fully exhausted the voters with constant talk of the threat of terrorism, to the point that this once potent issue had lost much of its force in American political debate, the members of the Democratic and Republican parties wisely shifted the direction of their policies elsewhere. Alas, for our purposes, they focused instead on the old Puritan fear of America’s children coming to harm from the supposedly “evil” influence of the wicked witches and warlocks in the mass media; namely, the characters portrayed in animated cartoons.
If you are interested in getting your independently produced book reviewed try sending a copy to Promote Indie Lit, a loose coalition of interested writers and publishers which offers a means to promote publications easily and without fees. If you write poetry or indeed fiction or other work it is more than worthwhile sending a sample. There really is no cost or risk involved. What you send can only be seen by a small group of reviewers, and will not be shared beyond that group.
