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Alarum
Alarum is a collection composed in the "mournful shadows", skulking beneath your window at that very hour of a sleepless night when you feel most alone, to deliver up to you its glorious, melancholy verdict on living. By turns abject, bereft, exultant and belligerent, the poems' voices reckon with the things we can't get hold of (or get rid of) via a kind of reification, whereby non-material things - air, anxiety, heartbreak - take on an unbearable substance. Thus Wayne Holloway-Smith - "Magic Wayne with flowers", among other incarnations - finds himself negotiating with the objects or creatures that "fell out" of his mind, becoming real: a population of crows that need "constant attention", or a Punch and Judy still wielding weapons. Always concerned with what happens in the margins, Alarum's own margins are full of violence - the violence that occurs at society's edges and the violence entailed when pulling back from those edges amounts to a kind of self-erasure. "Alarum" also means "a call to arms" and, in speaking its fears aloud, this is a collection of poems that fights back. --Emily Berry
There's an awful lot of poetry about these days. You can barely walk across the living room without stubbing your toe on a bit or getting some in your eye. But the thing is, not much of that poetry (in fact almost none of it) is actually poetry. Mostly it's just wearing an outfit that gives it the appearance of being poetry so it can pass itself off as such to the undiscerning or the unhurt. The most important thing I'd say about Wayne Holloway-Smith's book is that it actually is, unmistakably, poetry. When you look inside it you find yourself go quiet because you recognise that someone with a peculiar openness has been still and listened to the world and written down what it said. This book is funny, clever, serious, touching, and extraordinarily imaginative. Also it has a certain unguarded gentleness about it, by that I mean, it has a certain old-fashioned courtesy, the courtesy of the gent. That is a rare quality too I think. To recommend it sounds a bit glib. But I unequivocally do. --Mark Waldron
There's an awful lot of poetry about these days. You can barely walk across the living room without stubbing your toe on a bit or getting some in your eye. But the thing is, not much of that poetry (in fact almost none of it) is actually poetry. Mostly it's just wearing an outfit that gives it the appearance of being poetry so it can pass itself off as such to the undiscerning or the unhurt. The most important thing I'd say about Wayne Holloway-Smith's book is that it actually is, unmistakably, poetry. When you look inside it you find yourself go quiet because you recognise that someone with a peculiar openness has been still and listened to the world and written down what it said. This book is funny, clever, serious, touching, and extraordinarily imaginative. Also it has a certain unguarded gentleness about it, by that I mean, it has a certain old-fashioned courtesy, the courtesy of the gent. That is a rare quality too I think. To recommend it sounds a bit glib. But I unequivocally do. --Mark Waldron
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Paperback
Published March 23, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 12, 2019
I bought Wayne Holloway-Smith's book some time ago, but finally took it up and must say I found it to be a terrific book of poetry. The enchanting pathos that is part of young adulthood (which is what Holloway-Smith does to the max) is rendered with the soul of a real poet. The book covers a lot of ground, but notably deals the author's critique of traditional masculinity, as interpreted through his father and as reflected in his own experiences with his family, friendships and romantic attachments. This is a battle that still rages if the newsworthy situations around the world are any indication.
WHS writes with a high degree of awareness of how personal experience is rendered on the page, as the author's intelligence, wit and literary acumen are consistent throughout. My favorite poems are: "Everything is sometimes always broken," "If I forget this, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth," "Some Waynes," "Worship Music," "Cake," "The Politics of Birds," "Grandfather, with Flowers," and "Lucky." Other poems may appeal to the many WHS fans out there, but I found these to have that intangible quality that distinguishes his poetry from other writers.
Sorry I didn't get to this book sooner, but I highly recommend it.
WHS writes with a high degree of awareness of how personal experience is rendered on the page, as the author's intelligence, wit and literary acumen are consistent throughout. My favorite poems are: "Everything is sometimes always broken," "If I forget this, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth," "Some Waynes," "Worship Music," "Cake," "The Politics of Birds," "Grandfather, with Flowers," and "Lucky." Other poems may appeal to the many WHS fans out there, but I found these to have that intangible quality that distinguishes his poetry from other writers.
Sorry I didn't get to this book sooner, but I highly recommend it.
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November 18, 2022a real banger WHS won the nat poetry comp a few years ago and it's clear in this one that he knows how to construct A Poem. lots to learn from him I'm keen to get to his newer collection when I eventually escape the hell that is Things presently xx
August 26, 2018
This is one of those books that I keep going back to - in fact I borrowed it from a friend initially, but was compelled to buy my own copy. Dark, playful, tragic and with violent overtones (or should that be undertones). This book has something I aspire to in my own writing - that ability to expose the rawest nerves of humanity - to make me, the reader, think 'yes that's it, that's really it.'
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews