Ticker-Tape

by Rishi Dastidar

From politics to pop, from the UK to California, wherever digital heartbeats flutter and stutter, Ticker-tape is a maximalist take on 21st century living. Rishi Dastidar s first full collection showcases one of contemporary poetry s most distinctive voices, delivering effervescence with equal servings of panache and whiplash-quick wit.

Here is sheer madcap ingenuity and also impressive breadth; ranging from odes of love to deconstructed diversity campaigns and detonations of banter s worst excesses, plus appearances from ex-SugaBabes, a shark who comes to tea, to the matters of matchstick empires and national identity. Ticker-tape is bold, adventuresome and wry an unmissable and irrepressible debut.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2017

About the author

Rishi Dastidar’s poetry has been published by Financial Times, New Scientist and the BBC amongst many others. His debut collection Ticker-tape is published by Nine Arches Press, and a poem from it was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2018. A member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, and a consulting editor at The Rialto magazine, he also chairs the London writer development organization Spread The Word, and is editor of the final part of the Nine Arches Press writers’ trilogy, The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century.

Reviews

[Tim Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poet was educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics. Bloodaxe has already published some of his poems. It's worth first flicking through the pages - it looks different to your average poetry book. It starts with a flowchart (which works for me), and later has poems with redactions, hashtags, etc. I'm not keen on list poems though, and this book has several.

The first poem I was struck by was "Contour", which has a neat "Michael Donaghy sonnet" feel to it. It begins with "In every map is a kind of trance,/ a whisper that insists geography/ is destiny, no matter what you say." where much is happening beneath the appealing surface. "In" (rather than "on") is an unusual preposition to use with maps (and usually something is in a trance rather than the other way around). Also there's a lot of difference between a trance and a whisper, so sliding from one to the other is a challenge. Then it mentions the bridges of Königsberg - "an unsolvable problem, and so is your desire to keep moving". I did topology at university. By proving a more general theorem, Euler showed that Königsberg's bridges couldn't all be crossed without crossing at least one of them twice. I have trouble equating that to the issue of desire. In particular, the Königsberg issue has been resolved - there's nothing more to say. The poem mentions "new topography" later, which fits in with the title but not with topology (just as astronomy and astrology don't mix well). So though my first impressions were favourable, I ended up being less sure about the poem.

Some of the book's aesthetics are new to me, hence I found my reactions varied a lot from poem to poem, and even within poems. I like much of "A shark comes to dinner". "The anniversary issue" sounds good too. I like "The last neon sign maker in Hong Kong". I gave up reading the title poem after 2 pages though, and I didn't get "Bantz" at all. "Towards a singularity" is palindromic (first line = last line, etc - 22 lines). p.57 is also formally interesting - a sonnet interrupted in line 13 by some prose.

"Gunmetal" is a list poem including fun like "The sky is as cold as an ersatz gazpacho made out of a homeopathic Aldi tomato" (homeopathic because there's only a hint of taste in the tomato?) and "The sky is not the sky: it is the sea having got terribly confused at JobcentrePlus". "We are Premier League" is a list poem with many allusions that I understand ("We are charitable visits, making dreams come true ... We are court appearances in Armani suits ... We've parked the bus and we want more ... We are 17th place and we are class, etc"). However, I'm not sure that the point's worth making any more - an open goal.

"Diversity campaign" is fun, though an entertaining magazine column (or "The Office") might also mention "employees representing the 'rainbow of happiness' we'd like you to believe we are - the smiling, camp White man; the pretty, submissive East Asian women; the Afro-Caribbean guy who we still feel is threatening so we've put him at the back; the South Asian wearing glasses - obviously he's good with numbers. Although we never manage to include the wheelchair user we're always meaning to"

Some notes -
* "nebbish" (p.16) - describes "a person, especially a man, who is regarded as pitifully ineffectual, timid, or submissive"
* "TOWIE" (p.25) - The Only Way Is Essex
* "bantz" (p.26) "using word play, opinions, exaggeration, irony, sarcasm, and other comedic themes to (playfully) humiliate"
* "DFW" (p.30) - David Foster Wallace

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed some poems, mainly the ones discussing Britishness and race. Most of the time I was confused and had to look words up in the dictionary. The 9 pages of every line starting with 'my' was painful to get through.

[Russio · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all poetry collections, a mixed salad. Some crackers and some cracking lines. Highlights for me include On Enthusiasm, The Last Neon Sign Maker, My England, A Man on the TV and Theseus’ Ship. My favourite is Risk Patterns.

[Josie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of pieces that drew me in, but the rest I found forgettable.