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øÂ>Reviews
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øÂ>Reviews
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PAT EARNSHAW ( – 2012)
GOTHIC TALES
Pat Earnshaw ISBN: 09524113 7 7 32-page pamphlet. 24 poems. paperback. Price £4.50.
from: Gorse Publications, P.O.Box 214, Shamley Green, Guildford GU5 0SU.
NOW available on loan from Public Libraries
Reviews of Gothic Tales:
"tense nightmarish poems which linger in the mind long after they have been read"
"This pamphlet has a splendid cover: a dead Pierrot hangs from the curtain rail . The first poem 'Story-telling' introduces a Mervyn-Peake-type character handling a traditional narrative . . Formal confidence is evident from the start . . Pat Earnshaw shows herself to be sure-footed, a person who can turn a tidy metrical ankle when she wants to . . "
" Gothic Tales deals with the weird and the under-belly of things . . the intensity of language and depth of insight take in many layers and aspects of life . . The finely musical 'Winter' spreads a wide net while crystallising details: 'and now the paths are rivers and the fields / are ponds . The graveyard stones loosened / by water lean far over, prising the soil / to excavate the corpses . ."
"This booklet's a rich deep mine. With compelling phrases it explores the evidence of horror . . the poems are hard-polished to reflect our night's strangeness"
"Gothic is exactly the right word for these tales and snapshots of gloom and terror, beauty and ugliness, not to mention ironic humour and stunning imagery"
" . . the sounds flow rhythmically with internal rhyme, alliteration and simile. . . Some poems involve horror images 'the dew that drips down from the gallows / gives sight to eyes blinded by torture', Trapped ends with a beautiful imagery of bells 'in bird-jewelled air / their overpowering songs / racing away like white-hot dust of stars . . ', Red Planet is a prize-winner: 'canyons open their mouths / wide as a child's first cry . .' "
" .
.pamphlets
. .well produced, matching the content, are a
delicacy to be savoured.
.
claustrophobia and
escape become alive in (these poems') blank
truths.
The ironically
'negative, under-exposed world' (of 'Darken our
Lightness') is conveyed within and beyond the
magnificent
poem
'If I had time' -
that begins: If I had time I'd gather memories round me Like lost orphans of baboons'
and ends: 'I would hide them in some unfixed place, / a ship or satellite, guide them / out of the world into the shocking chill . .' 'Nirvana' the paradox of the seemingly pastoral that is in fact much more . . 'An epitaph for Age' impresses with every reading. The opening lines: 'The papier-maché faces of the old / stare disconnected from the life / below ' lead to the finishing epigraph: 'Walk / into the slab of shadow.' Uncompromisingly authentic, the poem is of this world, yet still horrifying for its realism in portraying 'Age'. And it is not sentimental, maintaining the Gothic with the recognisably real situation to illumine the tragedy.' . . ' . . in bringing forward subjects and themes from an unexpected realm that is with us now, but newly recognised for its validity, there is an argument for appropriating words and changing their usual sense . and 'Green Grove' exemplifies the poetic accomplishment, and the accomplished fusion that occurs in other poems. . This is a volume that alerts us to the existence of other lives, and makes them natural for us - an exceptional feat.'
Reviews of earlier collections
My Cat Vince :
"Twenty prose poems
each beautifully illustrated by wild-life artist
Sally Michel.
A
selection from these prose poems was awarded first
prize in the
Scintilla
poetry competition,
2000.
" . . Precisely and
evocatively observed, subtly exploring connections
between human and animal awareness .
." Scintilla 4, 2000
" ... anecdotes,
vignettes and reflections - 'Fledgling birds are
tumbling through air, free-fall parachutists
gliding, dancing, somersaulting, white pigeon
feathers spiralling down the wind . . ' (Vince
under the influence of
catmint). Weyfarers 87
Out on a Limb:
"The spectrum of Pat Earnshaw's knowledge across the board from science fiction to science fact appears to be boundless . . her powerful written words ensure a rare and evocative insight into human vulnerability "
Cychosis: "the title poem is a study of the near-paranoia induced by an obsession with virtual reality. " . . One senses a quest for wisdom that is also a quest to deal with tragedy . . "
Pigeon Grounded:
" ... Below the polished surface and behind the gentle humour and resigned irony her voice possesses both passion and pain... "
The Golden Hinde:
"This 29-page long poem is well researched and well crafted. Details of life on board, violent weather, the frail ship, are vividly described 'the passage / narrow as an alleyway, shrinking / their solid vessel to a toy, its double-thickness / sides to parchment skin, its fourteen guns / of bronze and iron to sticks'; as are the images of native tribes: 'Their painted / bodies looked like dominoes, the black parts / bearing suns, the white parts moons'... "
Links to Pat's poetry pages: Pat Earnshaw Page More Poems and www.google.co.uk (search) Pat Earnshaw
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