Between Two Windows

by Oli Hazzard

The first book of poems by Oli Hazzard, this compilation exposes its author as a consummate master of language, a gifted writer of free verse with the ability to write in traditional poetic forms and stretch the forms to their limits. Through lyrical poems and satires, this collection explores contrasting milieus such as city and country and reality and dream, while subjects such as thefts and love affairs are expressed through palindromes, mirrored poems, and homophonic translations.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant]

reread!
I remember reading this the first time in London @ something like dawn in a park,,,, I feel this time around & this side of ashbery things were allowed to settle more. love
____
Banger Oli you beauty I feel I annotated something of note (pun) but I don't have access to that so alas a loss for history

He's incredible & what a debut

[Ian Durant · Rating 4 out of 5]

How appropriate to have been reading this collection of poems by Oli Hazzard in the week that the great John Ashbery died. It was knowing of the poet's interest in Ashbery and Lee Harwood that brought me to read this which is his first published collection. There is something dreamlike about these pieces which slip easily from linguistic virtuosity to imaginative arenas where words and angels collide, where rationality and paradox live side by side. He looks for beauty and meaning in the everyday - colloquialisms, puns and he experiments with palindromes and anagrams, and found phrases and language such as in "The Inability to Recall the Precise Word for Something". These are rather like picking up beach debris, putting together the items in such a way that illuminates, just as the surrealists did. If one accepts Ashbery's view that poetry can be absorbed at an emotional level without being rationally understood one can enjoy these pieces without having a full understanding of them. But do we admire pieces as "Sonnet", "Home Poem"s or "As Necessity Requires" more than we enjoy them? I enjoyed the more lyrical poems with a little narrative momentum and the suspicion of an underlying story, however obscure. "Kayak" has this. Also those with a little humour, which Hazzard uses deftly, such as in "During My Time Here".This is a collection to savour and return to. I will be starting again with "Martedi Grasso" which on first read I found fascinating and frustrating in equal measure - so much more to understand and enjoy in these poems. March on Oli!

[Дарина Гладун · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a decent first book of poetry. It gives the reader a distinct idea of what is taught to aspiring poets in the UK academia.
The author has their toolbox and knows how to use them.
At the same time, I could say nothing of them or their writing after reading the first half of the book. I am unsure if I like some of the poems or am only satisfied with how they are made, like a teacher being happy with some of the students’ works rather than enjoying reading those works per se.
Second half resonated with me. The endings of those poems are especially well-crafted.
Overall, I would say it was the best debut poetry collection I have read in 2023.