Island To Island
Gerard Woodward
- In
- Island
- to
- Island,
- his
- third
- collection
- of
- poetry
- for
- Chatto,
- Gerard
- Woodward
- ventures
- into
- more
- hostile,
- less
- familiar
- territory.
- An
- Arabian
- desert,
- the
- moon,
- thinly-populated
- archipelagos
- are
- all
- visited
- in
- what
- emerges
- as
- an
- investigation
- into
- the
- nature
- of
- social
- space.
- A
- giraffe
- trapper
- finds
- that
- a
- successful
- trap
- must
- closely
- resemble
- a
- giraffe's
- own
- home;
- the
- 'suburban
- glass'
- of
- starter-home
- conservatories
- glazes
- and
- crysallises
- the
- lives
- of
- newly-weds.
- With
- his
- characteristic
- exuberance
- and
- ability
- to
- stand
- the
- world
- on
- its
- head,
- Woodward
- combines
- tichly
- imagined
- poems
- about
- half-invented
- lands
- with
- poetry
- that
- transforms
- the
- ordinary
- into
- the
- fantastical,
- where
- baths
- become
- oceans
- and
- ceilings
- lunar
- landscapes.
- Nor
- is
- the
- body
- exempt
- from
- this
- exploration
- of
- borders
- and
- limits.
- In
- one
- poem,
- two
- 'gurning'
- contestants
- find
- that
- they've
- overstepped
- some
- boundary
- of
- humanness
- and
- in
- 'The
- Madness
- of
- Heracles',
- a
- long
- retelling
- of
- the
- myth
- of
- the
- twelve
- labours,
- human
- strength
- is
- put
- to
- the
- test
- in
- a
- poem
- which
- evolves
- into
- a
- rhapsody
- of
- love,
- loss,
- toil
- and redemption.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
