Skip to content

Odd Volumes: Screeds by Stephen Wiest.

Screeds by Stephen WiestScreeds is an extended sequence which tracks a mediated life-passage, a narrative of failed and surviving love which is elegantly enmeshed in philosophical discoveries, abstract history and something called “America”, a kind of demanding governess who is very difficult to put up with. The poems are almost placeless, moving directly from experience into a poetical over-language, in a central tradition on which he has a firm grip. The techniques are those of someone who knows exactly what he wants from modern poetry, as a vehicle for dense self-questioning thought, but also linguistic escapades and meditative spaces some of which are a model of assurance and calm in the writing, ever prepared to transgress rational expectation:

 

It is two o’clock in the city

sirens are silent

windows open the first time in months

a mockingbird tests the air after rain

(full moon, high clouds)

shakes out his rusty songbook

on the edge of spring.

Thirty-seven songs in the heavy air.

Peter Riley
Poetry Editor
The Fortnightly Review

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x