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Couples
"Bleak but wonderful ... familiar, and of course funny." Alan Bennett "Dark, funny and twisted, but surprisingly tender." A.L. Kennedy Couples is a blackly comic sequence of poems that explore the nature of co-dependency - of two people who want to be together, but at the same time cannot help but push each other away.
The layout of the book is itself a commentary on the phenomenon - the poems are placed in their own 'couples', pairs that face each other across the page. Sometimes they exchange a glance, sometimes they stand side-by-side, staring out into the abyss; only when the book is closed, and they are in darkness, do they truly come together.
Originally published on Valentine's Day 2013, the seven-year itch has brought Michael Stewart back to his old flame for a new edition in 2020; reworking the original poems, and adding a dozen more. The result is an unnervingly perceptive volume, to be shared with your 'other half' at your own risk - you may never look at a couple, or each other, the same way again.
The layout of the book is itself a commentary on the phenomenon - the poems are placed in their own 'couples', pairs that face each other across the page. Sometimes they exchange a glance, sometimes they stand side-by-side, staring out into the abyss; only when the book is closed, and they are in darkness, do they truly come together.
Originally published on Valentine's Day 2013, the seven-year itch has brought Michael Stewart back to his old flame for a new edition in 2020; reworking the original poems, and adding a dozen more. The result is an unnervingly perceptive volume, to be shared with your 'other half' at your own risk - you may never look at a couple, or each other, the same way again.
- GenresPoetry
48 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 27, 2025
“But sometimes when everyone is out, she sits in the kitchen picking at the yellow paintwork so she can see the blue beneath.”
A short collection of poems split into couples. Poetry is really hard to review- I enjoyed some of these much more than others, and I saw the connection between some much easier than others. Only took about 15-20 minutes to read, but a mixed bag in my eyes.
A short collection of poems split into couples. Poetry is really hard to review- I enjoyed some of these much more than others, and I saw the connection between some much easier than others. Only took about 15-20 minutes to read, but a mixed bag in my eyes.
April 10, 2013
'Couples' is a book of contemporary English poetry by the award-winning playwright and novelist, Michael Stewart.
'Couples' is the only collection of poetry I remember reading from cover to cover at one sitting. One reason I did this (in fact, I've read it like that several times) was because the controlling idea of the collection is outstandingly clear: on each double page, two related poems face each other, like a couple sitting at a dining table. Without wishing to get too close to Pseuds' Corner, I can say that the physical volume itself is a work of conceptual art: the poems are separate when you read them, and only touch when you close the book.
Another reason for the compelling reading quality of the collection is its variety. There is one underlying concept, one set of subject matter, but huge variation in the language, the viewpoint, and the details.
Michael Stewart himself told me his definition of poetry: poetry is distilled language. That is certainly the case here. None of the poems is more than a page in length - if it were, it would spoil the concept. Language, in the sense of vocabulary, of lines constructed from words chosen with meticulous care, is the main vehicle for the author's purpose. Some of the poems are written in stanzas, but none has a rhyme scheme and none has regular meter. As works of art to be performed out loud, they read beautifully.
This is a collection which bears limitless re-visiting. All of the poems are comprehensible at first reading, in the sense that they are mostly about everyday objects (a fried egg sandwich) or situations (burning something in the back garden). It is the relations between the objects, the personalities and the situations which hold the fascination. Much of how you evaluate these relationships is up to you.
Finally, I would say that, for any-one who has an interest in writing poetry, this is a book to absorb and to study, precisely because it is a masterclass in the art of what is deliberately left unsaid, as well as the carefully-chosen words on the page. That is what makes it such an accomplished example of what is possible in contemporary poetry.
'Couples' is the only collection of poetry I remember reading from cover to cover at one sitting. One reason I did this (in fact, I've read it like that several times) was because the controlling idea of the collection is outstandingly clear: on each double page, two related poems face each other, like a couple sitting at a dining table. Without wishing to get too close to Pseuds' Corner, I can say that the physical volume itself is a work of conceptual art: the poems are separate when you read them, and only touch when you close the book.
Another reason for the compelling reading quality of the collection is its variety. There is one underlying concept, one set of subject matter, but huge variation in the language, the viewpoint, and the details.
Michael Stewart himself told me his definition of poetry: poetry is distilled language. That is certainly the case here. None of the poems is more than a page in length - if it were, it would spoil the concept. Language, in the sense of vocabulary, of lines constructed from words chosen with meticulous care, is the main vehicle for the author's purpose. Some of the poems are written in stanzas, but none has a rhyme scheme and none has regular meter. As works of art to be performed out loud, they read beautifully.
This is a collection which bears limitless re-visiting. All of the poems are comprehensible at first reading, in the sense that they are mostly about everyday objects (a fried egg sandwich) or situations (burning something in the back garden). It is the relations between the objects, the personalities and the situations which hold the fascination. Much of how you evaluate these relationships is up to you.
Finally, I would say that, for any-one who has an interest in writing poetry, this is a book to absorb and to study, precisely because it is a masterclass in the art of what is deliberately left unsaid, as well as the carefully-chosen words on the page. That is what makes it such an accomplished example of what is possible in contemporary poetry.
November 14, 2020
Poetry is the hardest kind of writing to review so it’s best to let the poet speak first. From Michael Stewart’s blog on his website:
“A few years ago, while editing a book of poetry, I became mindful of the relationship between the left and right hand page of a book, of the two poems on either side. There they were, pressed up against each other, attached and yet separate. Staring across at each other, or staring out at the world. Only coming together, significantly I felt, when the book was closed and they were in darkness. At the same time, I was taken by a photograph by Martin Parr which depicted an old couple in a greasy spoon cafe. They were sitting at a table, a single slice of bread and butter between them, staring through each other, into the abyss.
I was chilled by this image. I started to write ‘couples’ of poems that would connect with each other, talk to each other, or sit uncomfortably next to each other. I wanted the left hand poem and the right hand poem to be in an uneasy relationship with each other. The result is a blackly comic sequence of 24 poems – 12 pairs (He/She, Me/You, Him/Her, and so on), that explore the dynamic of co-dependency: two people who want to be together but at the same time are pushing away from each other. It is this dynamic, of needing security, needing stability, but at the same time wanting to be an individual, of wanting to reject the other, that I am interested in exploring here.”
This is an intriguing collection about seemingly incompatible, self-deceiving couples barely existing in cafes, pubs, kitchens, staring glumly at the telly, living lives of quiet desperation on cigarettes, Valium and social media, but it’s so darkly witty it never becomes depressing. By some strange comic alchemy Stewart manages to make the clichés of coupledom new again, with quirky convos between chalk and cheese or the double dialogue between ‘Cam and Shaft’ and ‘Hook and Clasp’. These suggest the real love that dare not speak its name is the comfortingly banal one that most of us already have the wisdom to settle for.
But what interested me most is that beneath the seemingly empty, mechanistic surface of these couples’ co-existence lurks a messy, animal undercurrent of lust, pain and violence that’s bigger than them, and is barely contained by the compact structures of the poems. You can see this best in poem pairs like ‘What I Do’ and ‘What You Do’, ‘He’ and She’ and ‘Clean’ and ‘The Spring Fires’, and particularly in the recurring images of erasure and burning. What is so clever about this collection is the poet creates his own mythology of the mundane, in which so much is absurd or ambiguous, teetering on a tragi-comic edge. Take for example ‘What She Remembers’ and ‘What He Remembers’ - one couple’s divergent memories of past outings - when ‘She sucked on a lemon’ but he felt ‘The cliffs fell away into the / sea. Like the whole of England was / crumbling into the sand.’ I loved that.
It's impossible to capture all the subtle ironies, paradoxes and ambiguities of relationships that this book explores – and of course, that’s what poetry is for: to say the great unsaids and unsayables of life that most of us can't. Stewart knows that, so in spite of also being a novelist and playwright, he chose the best form for his subject, adding the visual joke of a mirror layout that enhances the idea of the couples as fatally attracted ‘opposing magnets’. He pushes, pulls, stretches and plays around with his core concept in so many different ways, but holds it expertly together with a great big nothing. I mean that the poems speak to each other across the page the words that the characters don’t, making Couples an invitation to a stimulating threesome with the reader. A clever, playful and accessible collection that should appeal both to those who regularly read poetry and those who don’t. A big thumbs up from me.
“A few years ago, while editing a book of poetry, I became mindful of the relationship between the left and right hand page of a book, of the two poems on either side. There they were, pressed up against each other, attached and yet separate. Staring across at each other, or staring out at the world. Only coming together, significantly I felt, when the book was closed and they were in darkness. At the same time, I was taken by a photograph by Martin Parr which depicted an old couple in a greasy spoon cafe. They were sitting at a table, a single slice of bread and butter between them, staring through each other, into the abyss.
I was chilled by this image. I started to write ‘couples’ of poems that would connect with each other, talk to each other, or sit uncomfortably next to each other. I wanted the left hand poem and the right hand poem to be in an uneasy relationship with each other. The result is a blackly comic sequence of 24 poems – 12 pairs (He/She, Me/You, Him/Her, and so on), that explore the dynamic of co-dependency: two people who want to be together but at the same time are pushing away from each other. It is this dynamic, of needing security, needing stability, but at the same time wanting to be an individual, of wanting to reject the other, that I am interested in exploring here.”
This is an intriguing collection about seemingly incompatible, self-deceiving couples barely existing in cafes, pubs, kitchens, staring glumly at the telly, living lives of quiet desperation on cigarettes, Valium and social media, but it’s so darkly witty it never becomes depressing. By some strange comic alchemy Stewart manages to make the clichés of coupledom new again, with quirky convos between chalk and cheese or the double dialogue between ‘Cam and Shaft’ and ‘Hook and Clasp’. These suggest the real love that dare not speak its name is the comfortingly banal one that most of us already have the wisdom to settle for.
But what interested me most is that beneath the seemingly empty, mechanistic surface of these couples’ co-existence lurks a messy, animal undercurrent of lust, pain and violence that’s bigger than them, and is barely contained by the compact structures of the poems. You can see this best in poem pairs like ‘What I Do’ and ‘What You Do’, ‘He’ and She’ and ‘Clean’ and ‘The Spring Fires’, and particularly in the recurring images of erasure and burning. What is so clever about this collection is the poet creates his own mythology of the mundane, in which so much is absurd or ambiguous, teetering on a tragi-comic edge. Take for example ‘What She Remembers’ and ‘What He Remembers’ - one couple’s divergent memories of past outings - when ‘She sucked on a lemon’ but he felt ‘The cliffs fell away into the / sea. Like the whole of England was / crumbling into the sand.’ I loved that.
It's impossible to capture all the subtle ironies, paradoxes and ambiguities of relationships that this book explores – and of course, that’s what poetry is for: to say the great unsaids and unsayables of life that most of us can't. Stewart knows that, so in spite of also being a novelist and playwright, he chose the best form for his subject, adding the visual joke of a mirror layout that enhances the idea of the couples as fatally attracted ‘opposing magnets’. He pushes, pulls, stretches and plays around with his core concept in so many different ways, but holds it expertly together with a great big nothing. I mean that the poems speak to each other across the page the words that the characters don’t, making Couples an invitation to a stimulating threesome with the reader. A clever, playful and accessible collection that should appeal both to those who regularly read poetry and those who don’t. A big thumbs up from me.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews