ZEAL
By Andrew Bailey
Enitharmon £9.99
For another review project, I have been
re-reading “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, that challenging, unique
classic tome with its weird language and elaborate composition. Whilst not searching for any specific
comparisons here, I realised quickly that Andrew Bailey’s debut poetry
collection, “Zeal”, has one thing in common with Chaucer’s masterpiece – it
requires concentration……and time.…..and re-reading, to understand and absorb
the themes, the nuances, the observations and emotions therein. There is nothing throwaway in his fine
collection of poems. It seems
clear that every word and phrase has been chosen painstakingly and positioned
in precisely the right place on the page for maximum effect. There is something
very special going on in this volume.
Not all poets are as meticulous as Andrew Bailey but it is right and
proper to acknowledge his skill, his intelligent craftsmanship with language
and his poetic powers. He leads us
and we follow.
There is a lot of sand, water, rain, wind
and other natural ingredients driving his poems. Love and sex make guest appearances too. The challenges and conflicts of nature
interweave with personal feelings, hopes, regrets and doubts. “Quickening” is a strong opening poem:
‘Where surf fusses at the definitions/of sandy water, watery sand, a tethered
boat/enjoys support from both./I promised once to sail,/one hand in sea one
hand in sky,/for the point where they would meet/and I would learn some
undefined/but Eleusinian thing. I learned/about how to be wet.’
The killer lines of some of the work stick
with you. From “Chill”, ‘moon as
faint as a misprint”; from “Dream”, “Dream is headfill”; from “Halloween, ‘a
cobweb past noon’; from “Coastal”, ‘We will speak like sandpaper’; from
“Aspire”, ‘each particle of sand aspires to pearl’. I know I’m teasing you here with scraps but back to my
original point, the words and phrases are plotted and knitted together
beautifully. The poetry, although
cryptic at times, is sublime.
In my experience, if you have read a poetry
book and remembered nothing, it wasn’t much of a book. But if you remembered something, the
seed has been sown for you to return to the work again and again, or to urge
you find out more about the poet. On reading “Zeal”, you will want more.
I urge you to buy this book and then to
promise that you will respect it and it’s author by giving it your full
concentration and a fair chunk of time.
It will be well worth it and you will feel all the better for
introducing yourself to a deep thinking but rather exciting new poet.
More, please.
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