shereereviews

previous donations to The Word Hoard Small Press Library
reviewed by Sheree Mack

E A Markham John Lewis & Co

published 2003, pp.47

“Early one morning in London – on Boxing Day – a minicab driver and his customer discover they have much in common. They are of a certain age, came to Britain at about the same time, in their teens, lived in the same street in Kilburn in the 1950s and together can boast 100 years’ residence here.

In lifestyle and expectation they seem to live in different Englands. One struggles with the language, the other teaches it and writes books. But the second is seeking to establish a new home in ‘Europe’, while the first dreams of returning to Jamaica. Over two days of adult truancy they discover the divergences that have accompanied their overlapping histories, as they flatter, argue, undermine and adopt each other. What next?”

This is taken from the blurb off the back of this book, which is billed as ‘a little play with interludes’. But it could also be poetry or prose as this book could be read on a number of different levels. For content,

‘For who is this old guy that long ago

settled for second best, ethnic minored

with his collision, for decades clinging

to a language – no , not like a baby

to the finger of its mother;’ (p.11)

this collection does not disappoint as it details those hidden stories surrounding the mass of people who came over on the Windrush and how life developed after the initial high hopes. It’s a life of disappointments as dreams are dashed and potentials are not unfulfilled.

‘Burial is the only way we go earn

a piece a land in this place: the people

so prejudice they not going to want

to share it with you.’ (p36)

On another level, the reader might register the content as a sad affair only to be held by the language of the piece. Individual voices are distinguishable just as the Caribbean turn of phrase is dominant. One sentence can be unpicked to demonstrate a multitude of cultural references and devices.

‘And now it have thing where they burning you

like cattle with foot ’n mouth and them thing.

They taking out they body-parts to sell,

Then they burning you up like evidence.’

Markham mentions the diseases that were plaguing Britain at the time of writing this piece using a five stress line, mainly iambic with that Caribbean inflection. What this says to me is that Markham is part of British society, contributing to the literary establishment in his own unique way but which can be read and appreciated by many.

Michelle Scally-Clarke I Am
Route

published 2001 pp.192

Transformations is the first word which opens the book. This word is being used to describe Michelle Scaly-Clarke the person, her life. I will choose to use the word ‘transformation’ to describe her work. I see I Am, Michelle Scally Clarke’s first collection as a mixed bag of tricks. A hybrid work of prose to describe her most recent history, non-fiction extracts from her adoption papers to detail her origins and poetry to explore her understandings of her identity, of who is she.

Clarke uses the broad canvas of her story on which to paint this collection and no detail is left out. From the beginning, her identity was owned by the social services,

‘…I was placed in the system’s belly. The system holds my

facts, dates, figures, testaments. I remember a haze, like I’m

looking into a mirror with a bright light shining in . Blurred

images, people who I knew were mine, who I have sought to

find, to define my way.’( Chapter 2 Adoption)

Her life is a hazy, a spiralling mist which she has no control of. Through writing this book, the process she went through, the research, the dialogues to create the full picture means she has claimed her identity back. Now she owns her own identity.

‘I grew to know love, through my pain

I learnt from clarity, you will gain

Suffered humbling, but shone with pride

Like the new Africa

I WILL RISE.’ (1997, And I’m Glad To Be The Woman I’ve Become’.

The language is simple and plain in the prose sections telling her journeys towards a loving family. While the adoption paper extracts detailing the actual meetings and activities of her birth parents are the official language of the inhuman system, devoid of any emotions. The poetry sections are where she flies.

Clarke started writing poetry from an early age, ‘I’m Still Full’, the poem that took Clarke to see the Pope,

‘I see the starving in Ethiopia

And I’m still full

Bones are sticking out of their bodies

And I’m still full’,

has that young writer’s quality of repetition and easy rhyme. The poetry sections carry on, at times showing originality with ‘ sweet as the sweat/that lines my baby’s neck’ from ’MotherGod’ but at other times still telling rather than showing.

I would argue that this book was written for Michelle Scally Clarke, for her as through the process of writing it she became that strong Black woman,

‘I know I’m a strong, Black woman, and I wonder did I cry?

Cos I’m big-up with passion and I’m big-up with pride

I’m a young Black mother, ghetto system

Babylon system

Knocks me off my stride.’

When you’ve read the book and realise what Clarke has been through to get to this point, not just the adoption, being labelled deaf and sub-normal, being beat up by her husband, a single mother and still carrying the feelings of self-hate and of not being loved buried deep within her psyche, then you have to admire the transformations played out within this collection. What also has to be taken into consideration is that Clarke is a Black woman,

‘Who will sing my song, in a Black British voice

Who will sing my song in a low rustic chime

Justify my anger, forgive my rage

Justify my anger, unlock my cage.’

Here the questions, the rhythm and rhyme work together to create an effective and powerful stance of the reality facing a Black British woman today. Clarke doesn’t wait for an answer to her questions as she chooses to sing her own song in her own individual way. She does this on the page with the use of different genres and she does it within the accompanied CD. These musical renditions of just a small selection of the poems in this collection are pure song. She demonstrates how the simple words are authoritative lyrics once put to a strong funky beat with ‘Baby’ or interlaced with sassy women voices and breezy swinging jazz in ‘Ghetto Girl’. Take your time with this collection as the gems will come slowly but competently.

Rommi Smith Moveable Type
Route
published 2000 pp64

Moveable Type is a collection of journeys and travelling. Our first trip is New York, with ‘TLC Street’,

‘At the subway turnstile, a woman seeks shut eye

on top of an electric box;

home-goers sneak preview

the craftwork of her

worldly possessions tied up in knots.’

The odd word here and there places these scenes in the states, but the images intricately described, with a swinging rhyme, could be any urban street, as Smith deals only in contemporary reality only.

Rommi Smith is a ventriloquist. The strength of this first collection comes through the voices played out on the page. From ‘The Love Song Lyrics Blues’, where snippets of song lyrics intersperse cleverly and neatly with her commentaries, to ‘Scarecrow’, where an inanimate farming device is brought to life;

‘Who planted me here

so that vines

could claim status as the veins in my legs?

You, I expect.’

There are the harsh realities of life within this collection. Smith manages to approach the subjects of domestic abuse, AIDS, police brutality and immigration without being heavy handed or preachy but with skill, insight and clarity. ‘Justice for Joy’, brings back to mind the case immigration case involving Joy Gardener where police officers raided her London flat early one morning and bound her head with thirteen feet of tape. She died of asphyxiation. In ‘Justice for Joy, Smith sets up the interrogation with a questioning of the British Justice System and its failure to persecute anyone for Joy’s murder.

‘until there is justice for Joy.

Until there is justice for Joy.

Until there is justice for Joy’.

Smith succeeds in getting across her message that there will be no peace in this country until there is justice by simple repetition; the power of three, every politician’s device.

Smith demonstrates a love of playing with words as she drops in cultural references that every reader could relate to, ‘Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire’ in ‘Me and Ainsley Harriot on Broadway’ and‘ Oz, Gormenghast, Toy-town, Narnia’ in ‘The Great Escape’. This sheer love of what language can do and its effect is highlighted even more so in the CD that accompanies the book. I’m not going to enter ‘The Great Debate’ about the page verses the stage here, but what I will say is that by buying Moveable Type and its CD, you get a double whammy. Each one could and should stand alone as a piece of sheer art and pleasure. Smith sings, raps, speaks a selection of poems on the CD, over a mixture of blues, jazz, dub and folksy music. It’s an experience of sounds and voices again that could blow you away.

Considering the whole package, Rommi Smith is a unique package. A talented wordsmith whose songs have only just begun to be heard. Take a listen.




		small press library / reviews index
	previous donations to The Word Hoard Small Press Library reviewed by Sheree Mack E A Markham John Lewis & Co Anvil published 2003, pp.47 “Early one morning in London – on Boxing Day – a minicab driver and his customer discover they have much in common. They are of a certain age, came to Britain at about the same time, in their teens, lived in the same street in Kilburn in the 1950s and together can boast 100 years’ residence here. In lifestyle and expectation they seem to live in different Englands. One struggles with the language, the other teaches it and writes books. But the second is seeking to establish a new home in ‘Europe’, while the first dreams of returning to Jamaica. Over two days of adult truancy they discover the divergences that have accompanied their overlapping histories, as they flatter, argue, undermine and adopt each other. What next?” This is taken from the blurb off the back of this book, which is billed as ‘a little play with interludes’. But it could also be poetry or prose as this book could be read on a number of different levels. For content, ‘For who is this old guy that long ago settled for second best, ethnic minored with his collision, for decades clinging to a language – no , not like a baby to the finger of its mother;’ (p.11) this collection does not disappoint as it details those hidden stories surrounding the mass of people who came over on the Windrush and how life developed after the initial high hopes. It’s a life of disappointments as dreams are dashed and potentials are not unfulfilled. ‘Burial is the only way we go earn a piece a land in this place: the people so prejudice they not going to want to share it with you.’ (p36) On another level, the reader might register the content as a sad affair only to be held by the language of the piece. Individual voices are distinguishable just as the Caribbean turn of phrase is dominant. One sentence can be unpicked to demonstrate a multitude of cultural references and devices. ‘And now it have thing where they burning you like cattle with foot ’n mouth and them thing. They taking out they body-parts to sell, Then they burning you up like evidence.’ Markham mentions the diseases that were plaguing Britain at the time of writing this piece using a five stress line, mainly iambic with that Caribbean inflection. What this says to me is that Markham is part of British society, contributing to the literary establishment in his own unique way but which can be read and appreciated by many. Michelle Scally-Clarke I Am Route published 2001 pp.192 Transformations is the first word which opens the book. This word is being used to describe Michelle Scaly-Clarke the person, her life. I will choose to use the word ‘transformation’ to describe her work. I see I Am, Michelle Scally Clarke’s first collection as a mixed bag of tricks. A hybrid work of prose to describe her most recent history, non-fiction extracts from her adoption papers to detail her origins and poetry to explore her understandings of her identity, of who is she. Clarke uses the broad canvas of her story on which to paint this collection and no detail is left out. From the beginning, her identity was owned by the social services, ‘…I was placed in the system’s belly. The system holds my facts, dates, figures, testaments. I remember a haze, like I’m looking into a mirror with a bright light shining in . Blurred images, people who I knew were mine, who I have sought to find, to define my way.’( Chapter 2 Adoption) Her life is a hazy, a spiralling mist which she has no control of. Through writing this book, the process she went through, the research, the dialogues to create the full picture means she has claimed her identity back. Now she owns her own identity. ‘I grew to know love, through my pain I learnt from clarity, you will gain Suffered humbling, but shone with pride Like the new Africa I WILL RISE.’ (1997, And I’m Glad To Be The Woman I’ve Become’. The language is simple and plain in the prose sections telling her journeys towards a loving family. While the adoption paper extracts detailing the actual meetings and activities of her birth parents are the official language of the inhuman system, devoid of any emotions. The poetry sections are where she flies. Clarke started writing poetry from an early age, ‘I’m Still Full’, the poem that took Clarke to see the Pope, ‘I see the starving in Ethiopia And I’m still full Bones are sticking out of their bodies And I’m still full’, has that young writer’s quality of repetition and easy rhyme. The poetry sections carry on, at times showing originality with ‘ sweet as the sweat/that lines my baby’s neck’ from ’MotherGod’ but at other times still telling rather than showing. I would argue that this book was written for Michelle Scally Clarke, for her as through the process of writing it she became that strong Black woman, ‘I know I’m a strong, Black woman, and I wonder did I cry? Cos I’m big-up with passion and I’m big-up with pride I’m a young Black mother, ghetto system Babylon system Knocks me off my stride.’ When you’ve read the book and realise what Clarke has been through to get to this point, not just the adoption, being labelled deaf and sub-normal, being beat up by her husband, a single mother and still carrying the feelings of self-hate and of not being loved buried deep within her psyche, then you have to admire the transformations played out within this collection. What also has to be taken into consideration is that Clarke is a Black woman, ‘Who will sing my song, in a Black British voice Who will sing my song in a low rustic chime Justify my anger, forgive my rage Justify my anger, unlock my cage.’ Here the questions, the rhythm and rhyme work together to create an effective and powerful stance of the reality facing a Black British woman today. Clarke doesn’t wait for an answer to her questions as she chooses to sing her own song in her own individual way. She does this on the page with the use of different genres and she does it within the accompanied CD. These musical renditions of just a small selection of the poems in this collection are pure song. She demonstrates how the simple words are authoritative lyrics once put to a strong funky beat with ‘Baby’ or interlaced with sassy women voices and breezy swinging jazz in ‘Ghetto Girl’. Take your time with this collection as the gems will come slowly but competently. Rommi Smith Moveable Type Route published 2000 pp64 Moveable Type is a collection of journeys and travelling. Our first trip is New York, with ‘TLC Street’, ‘At the subway turnstile, a woman seeks shut eye on top of an electric box; home-goers sneak preview the craftwork of her worldly possessions tied up in knots.’ The odd word here and there places these scenes in the states, but the images intricately described, with a swinging rhyme, could be any urban street, as Smith deals only in contemporary reality only. Rommi Smith is a ventriloquist. The strength of this first collection comes through the voices played out on the page. From ‘The Love Song Lyrics Blues’, where snippets of song lyrics intersperse cleverly and neatly with her commentaries, to ‘Scarecrow’, where an inanimate farming device is brought to life; ‘Who planted me here so that vines could claim status as the veins in my legs? You, I expect.’ There are the harsh realities of life within this collection. Smith manages to approach the subjects of domestic abuse, AIDS, police brutality and immigration without being heavy handed or preachy but with skill, insight and clarity. ‘Justice for Joy’, brings back to mind the case immigration case involving Joy Gardener where police officers raided her London flat early one morning and bound her head with thirteen feet of tape. She died of asphyxiation. In ‘Justice for Joy, Smith sets up the interrogation with a questioning of the British Justice System and its failure to persecute anyone for Joy’s murder. ‘until there is justice for Joy. Until there is justice for Joy. Until there is justice for Joy’. Smith succeeds in getting across her message that there will be no peace in this country until there is justice by simple repetition; the power of three, every politician’s device. Smith demonstrates a love of playing with words as she drops in cultural references that every reader could relate to, ‘Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire’ in ‘Me and Ainsley Harriot on Broadway’ and‘ Oz, Gormenghast, Toy-town, Narnia’ in ‘The Great Escape’. This sheer love of what language can do and its effect is highlighted even more so in the CD that accompanies the book. I’m not going to enter ‘The Great Debate’ about the page verses the stage here, but what I will say is that by buying Moveable Type and its CD, you get a double whammy. Each one could and should stand alone as a piece of sheer art and pleasure. Smith sings, raps, speaks a selection of poems on the CD, over a mixture of blues, jazz, dub and folksy music. It’s an experience of sounds and voices again that could blow you away. Considering the whole package, Rommi Smith is a unique package. A talented wordsmith whose songs have only just begun to be heard. Take a listen.