Josh Ekroy praises Oliver Cominsā poetry for its use of tactfully included detail as a way of conveying emotion held in check.
Yes to Everything
Oliver Comins
Templar Portfolio Pamphlets Series
ISBN: 1906285411
15 pages £5.00
The poem from which the title to this pamphlet is taken, is called
āSomething Geometricā, and itās a line from its last stanza in which
the speaker regrets:
but itās too late and no amount of persuasion
will enable him to invest the effort required.
āHeā is the deceased dedicatee of the poem. There follows a comparison with his own experience:
Just like that time I dithered over an oil painting
of towels on a hot beach with a tiny swimmer
in the distance, sold in the hour I took to return.
Actual death is located in lifeās smaller hesitations. The thirteen poems collected here typically
caution the reader by tactful inclusion of detail that while life is open like the doors of a delivery van,
it is also closed by distance, emotion that is held in check, and something beyond our capacity for self-fulfilment:
So little light left, seeping into the rooms
where we live with our long nurtured needs
This poem, āFirethorn (Pyrocantha coccinea)ā presents the shrub as infinitely more expansive and at
ease in the world than humanity manages to be. Its expression finds a validity through carefully flexed juxtaposition:
red berry soaring a few yards to the west...
āGreengrocerā also probes the nerves of disappointment through natural imagery, as it uses the
luscious fruit that a couple buys together in the market and which will merely be washed and stored
in the fridge as a trope for loveās cooling.
āNiagara Time at Michelleās Placeā, on the other hand, is the most ambitious in the collection and
combines the experience of being in a hairdresserās with a musical production as well as Blondinās
voyage across Niagara on a tightrope. This multi-faceted poem - in that you finish it not knowing
which way to look - contains my favourite line:
The words have travelled from somewhere east
of Ealing
The suburban setting reduces this modest poetās world to spare proportions. The regret is muted, but not completely buried beneath a sense of enjoyment. The tone is always reassuringly conversational, and drama is not something that is going to disfigure life, even if it is perceived as disrupting the
borders of it.
Josh Ekroyās first collection Ways To Build A Roadblock was published by Nine Arches Press in May, 2014. He lives in London.
by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2015 • 0 Comments
Josh Ekroy praises Oliver Cominsā poetry for its use of tactfully included detail as a way of conveying emotion held in check.