BILL HEADDON: PICARDY.COM Oversteps Books Froude Road Salcombe South Devon TQ8 8LH UK ISBN 0 9541376 5 5 £7.50 email the author Read a poem from this book on Pickings Web design by This page last updated: 11th December 2007. |
BILL HEADDON: PICARDY.COM | |
Many of the 42 poems in this collection bear on memories of the wars; e.g. the title poem is about the poet's deceased soldier-father, now image-linked to the computer screen and recalling him, his trials and tribulations caused by World War 1: Don't gape at me Daddy-ghost, One touch could exorcise you From my screen. Away to the place for you heroes, Your file is backed up, Saved as a child's fascination For that hole the bullet You copped in your leg made, Your magic cough That could bring up mustard, The bits of trench in you . . .War poems also include GI's QUEUE FOR CHOW AT CROOKLETS BEACH CAFE, STONE DISCS, PLAYING LISZT TO HIMMLER [the latter two jew holocaust poems], STANDING BY, TROUPER, CHOREOGRAPHED DREAM. TROUPER contains a theatrical memory of his parents: After the lights dimmed, you'd still finish up your best, then play the fool, doubled-up as Harlequin, squirty hose down the pants, and Mother as Columbine, standing-by with mop and pan.CHOREOGRAPHED DREAM has its internal dream language: Mother stoops at the cloam bowl to wash, half-dressed for widowhood, a candle to show the fault line of veins, a bow window to reflect her Dowager hump in the making.Father is horse-soldier, legless by the fireand his lungs expunge their scars, his hand triggers this drill, trembles at his oath to her.It is the pas de deux of a broken-off unionMost of the poems are parochial, in the nicest way, and bluntly expressive or dramatic. PICARDY.COM should appeal to 'old soldiers', maybe those who experienced the London Blitz, like myself. This attractive perfect-bound collection is neatly typeset by the poet himself. | ||
reviewer: Eric Ratcliffe. |