Relic Environments Reviews

Relic Environments

Cinnamon Press 2006

Written in two parts (the first), "Mystery Tramp Eclogues", is a series of original poems, including several longer poems, whilst "Revelations of a Lesser Wife" is a series of poems adapted from the fragments and surviving poems of Yu Xuanji, a ninth-century Chinese courtesan.

This is poetry-writing at its best - confident, original, perfectly chosen language used to maximum effect. Several of the longer pieces build up sharply observed narratives that draw the reader in and make comment with a hint of didacticism - as in the opening piece:

The terrible work went on -

Witchfinder-General Matthew Hopkins

conducting the trials, his ghost haunting the old shop

to this day...

("Elite Syncopations")

There is a real intelligence at work in these pieces, combined with an ironic, but humane, sense of humour.

By all means

Dinner, only I'm a little short on cash

So you bring the salt and wine

Something nice, a little entertainment

And I'll recite the poems about True Love

I've been saving for a special occasion

("The Idler's Miscelleny" [after Catullus])

Descriptions are restrained, highly crafted, but wonderfully vivid and evocative -

On Portland Sand

waters slide - sleek,

a sable halfling creek

of seashell contraband.

The kites, crescents

of hoisted blue...

("The Afterlife of Thomas Hardy")

or -

The fingernails of the sorceress

Fashioned in smoke

A land without climate

A stone buried in ashes

("The Water-Bearer")

Pollock takes us on journeys - to ancient Rome or through landscapes so clearly evoked that they are virtually palpable -

The geography is the key, its contours

nested in minutes and degrees of wind and rain,

slumped cocoanut trees,

the cockroaches shinneying the sweepings

in this remote station.

("Serum Ratios at 36º North")

or imaginary journeys inside the minds of literary figures -

Sir, I too am a student of meaning,

of sounds and recalcitrant hopes, a thing

the tongue holds, turns, and lets by...

("The Plan of a Dictionary, 1747")

The journey reaches its final destination in the second section of the collection. In "Revelations of a Lesser Wife" we build up an intimate, insider's picture of Yu Xuanji, a ninth-century Chinese courtesan, with a remarkably urbane voice that reveals so much in so few words. I have read these short poems over and over and can never tire of them - they are exquisitely beautiful and deeply personal, but also pared down - elegant examples of how to say more with less:

The moon allows too many memories

Lost loves

Autumn wind

Blowing through the courtyard

Takes your breath

The room you set aside

Lamp-lit now

Your hair flecked grey

("Autumn Lament")

The section ends with the line:

A simple flute note carries miles

("The Beautiful Orphans")

These are poems that will carry on resonating after you have read them, and draw you back to them. These are poems to aspire to.

...

Estill Pollock name-checks Terrible Work in the opening poem, "Elite Syncopations", the terrible work of the Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, which sets him thinking a few lines later about Gerard Manley Hopkins, hence the syncopations.

The poems are looking-glasses that let us see how Pollock's mind is always jumping ahead of its references, then bouncing back and forth between the past and present.

In many poems, he puts himself into the role of a historical figure, known or obscure, a ventriloquist act that rarely appeals to me, though there are exceptions here, including the long second part of the book, 'Revelations of a Lesser Wife', supposedly composed from fragments and poems of Yu Xuanji (c 844 - late T'ang), a concubine (lesser wife) who became a Taoist nun, later executed for murder. I say 'supposed' because I can't find Miss X in my T'ang anthologies, but they're always changing the Anglo-spelling, and I'm no scholar. Either way, it's good. If it is a pastiche? Still good.

Pollock has a way with titles: the opening section is called 'Mystery Tramp Eclogues' - Dylan's Mystery Tramp, I suppose. I think he could set up a little business supplying interesting titles for people's uninteresting poems. Some fine individual poems here too, e.g. "Venn Diagrams for Four Terms" and "Anon".

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