Poetry Read #3/23

Ella Frears: Shine, Darling

I like Frears’ poetry, it is bold, fun, sexy, slightly out of kilter to the world – there’s a lot of it set in Cornwall, where I have just been on holiday, so perhaps I am biased: Fucking in Cornwall is hilarious, and recommended – kiss me in the pasty shop with all the ovens on. There are concerns about self-image, relationships, relationships with parents and with nature, the moon.

Two whip-smart and funny poems about periods Magical Thinking (I) & (II) – yes, there is a Joan Didion epigram – the second has her mother telling adult Ella, about her mortification at coming on at the aunt’s house (they are in a taxi together, just leaving a party), so much so that she smuggled out the (favourite) cushion she had been sitting on. From MT (I):

The hand is quicker than the eye, said Lily / showing us how to slip a tampon out / and a man in with one swift movement.

The Film, is an absolute show-stopper of a poem, which is hard to discuss without giving away its power – suffice to say, that when she and a female friend decide for “art” to walk around campus asking men to hit Frears in the face, on film… the result is stunning, abrupt and shocking.

ETA

Bastard / grey road. / Empty sky. / Radio – dull, / dull songs. / Even you, / who I love / fiercely, are / fucking me / off. On our / way to a party. / Family party. / Obligatory… / The urge / to punch / a nice old / man…

There is also the complete reprint / re-use of her earlier 14 page pamphlet Passivity, Electricity, Acclivity in the middle of the new book, and this has narked me more than perhaps it should. The fact that these 14 pages crackle, are exceptional, is perhaps more to the point:

I had been tasting the cold air, / feeling my heart beat / into the dark car park, / the thrill of my presence / under the sky alone

So, just buy the full collection is the message.