Spending Time With Walter
John Hartley Williams
- The
- long
- poem
- at
- the
- centre
- of
- John
- Hartley
- Williams'
- new
- collection
- is
- a
- dramatic
- monologue
- narrated
- by
- a
- laconic,
- possibly
- lamed,
- forest
- dweller,
- a
- lowly
- crewmember
- on
- a
- barge
- travelling
- an
- unnamed
- waterway.
- Some
- of
- his
- remarks
- are
- addressed
- to
- his
- talisman,
- the
- shrunken
- head
- of
- an
- African
- tribesman.
- The
- barge
- carries
- a
- sinister
- cargo
- and
- its
- captain
- has
- a
- preference
- for
- sadistic
- sex.
- Other
- poems
- in
- the
- book
- undertake
- journeys
- -
- to
- Northern
- Cyprus,
- China,
- medieval
- France,
- Florida
- -
- but
- like
- 'The
- Barge'
- they're
- not
- exactly
- travel
- poems,
- more
- poems
- which
- travel.
- Welcome
- to
- the
- unsettling
- world
- of
- John
- Hartley
- Williams,
- whose
- restless,
- inexhaustible
- imagination,
- originality
- and
- maverick
- humour
- have
- enlivened
- contemporary
- poetry
- for
- years.
- Paranoid,
- erotic,
- disturbed
- and
- disturbing,
- these
- are
- bulletins
- from
- a
- dislocated,
- parallel
- world
- that
- excites,
- entertains
- and
- terrifies
- -
- and
- often
- feels
- more
- real
- to
- us
- than
- our own.
