NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
LUCAPACIJÜRGENGHEBREZGIABIHER: THE FINE LINE
Chanticleer Press
6/1 Jamaica Mews
Edinburgh
EH3 6HN
UK
£3.33
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This page last updated: 11th December 2007. 		LUCAPACIJÜRGENGHEBREZGIABIHER: THE FINE LINE

	                At face value
	      the skin over London is too tight
	    the face lift of success too successful
	     (probably rep-car replaces Bowler)
	too deep yet the lines in the faces of the poor
Fragmentary, impressionistic portraits of life in London, tinged with critical social commentary, and with the sadness and loneliness of those who live on the edge. Many of the poems are untitled, and Lucapacijürgenhebrezgiabiher makes use of visual effects, including line drawings and different fonts, in the manner of early twentieth century French poets, such as Apollonaire (unfortunately not reproducible in this review). I was also reminded of Kenneth Patchen, and I would guess that Lucapacijürgenhebrezgiabiher is a reader of Blake, Eliot and Pound. He quotes Dante: "Tra la perduta gente" (Among the lost people).

The city of London in these poems is both timeless and very much of today. He answers the question WHAT'S BEAUTY?:

	  Eating space and tar
	Following the road — scar
	   Wounding the city

	 The burning rail tracks
	 Sparkling into another
	Dimension where things
	       Matter

	 That bleached poster
	Stuck at the petrol pump
	   VISIT JAMAICA

	Dwindling morning dream
	 Visit......visit Jamaica
The success of some has always come at a price for others. Lucapacijürgenhebrezgiabiher makes his point in a manner which is playful and aphoristic:
	       London skull
	     heading a Europe
	         skeleton
	  oh what a swish reaper
	(probably with a Bowler hat)
	 a sort of royal dawdler in
	         Hide&Park
— from the untitled poem quoted at the start of this reivew —

There is a kind of controlled rage and sadness. From the same poem:

	assets assets assets assets assets assets assets assets assets assets assets assets
	                              worth some wars and
	                            flesh to be rubbished away
	                               beauty to be sold out
	                      needs streamlined into one-way system
Some of the poems take the form of small prayers. There is a yearning for a different Albion, where not
	only the fool can
	make it.
At their best, the poems have a hypnotic, haunting quality. And they are all much more readable and pronounceable than the author's name.

Not all the writing in this collection will appeal, but if the lines quoted above say something to you, it's worthwhile getting hold of a copy of this book.

reviewer: Ian Seed.