Nigel McLoughlin's Dissonances

A fascinating read that follows a man’s love for his family and the world about him. Dissonances is Nigel McLoughlin's fourth collection of poetry and his finest.

I am put in mind of a series of Polaroid photographs, for that, in essence, is what these poems are. Lyrical moments in time; a shutter of though and emotion upon subjects that are fleeting as a shaft of sunlight from a sky crowded with thunder clouds.

The volume, after a couple of poems relating to his toddler son, is divided into four parts. “Tales from Long Acre” juxtaposes the love of nature and McLoughlins absolute need to be in his beloved wilds with the press of life, the city stink and the urgent need of folk to be wherever they are not. “The Science of Signs” is a chapter of loss and the trying to understand what the world is trying to say. It is the photograph of an empty room, a child’s coat, a discarded shoe on the roadside.

“Shrapnel” is the most difficult section. It throws words and phases like blood spatter upon the walls of consciousness. There is no map to read this work, and the juxtapositions are often unexpected and startling. The final section, “Second Sight” has a melancholy feel; the benefit of hindsight at the end of a hard-earned life.

A truly masterful collection of work, Dissonances deserves a place on every would be poet’s shelf, for this man is surely a master of the art.

Dissonances
Author: McLoughlin, Nigel
Publisher: Bluechrome Publishing
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978-1-906061-14-2
Pages: 80
Price: £12.99

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Books and... bagels?

Ah! That solves it. I answered a post on the Bluechrome Books blog which was offering a free book to any blogger that was offering to read and review it. I put my name down. This, remember, was at the end of April. Imagine my surprise this morning when a parcel arrives with FOURTEEN books in it -- all fresh off the press. One of them I already have - Your Messages, the result of a highly inventive online collaboration which ran during November 2007, where contributors were given a single day to write a response in exactly 300 words to a message of exactly 300 words created by Lynne Rees and Sarah Salway. I loved this book, though I would say that because its packed full of stories by people I know both in blogland and in real life and, of course, one by me.


Freshly mown fields. There's nothing quite like them. True, this is a piece of council recreation ground rather than a real field cultivated and mown for hay - Ah! what memories of childhood antics that evokes -- but still, pleasant enough.

Is it a sign that I'm an adult, I wonder, that although i want to lie on the grass and look up at the sky, I don't because (a) my clothes would get covered with bits of grass and it's me that does the washing and (b) I have too much to do at home - two stories and a novel to get on with, for a start!

Rust.

A year ago these were two brightly polished Chinese massage balls - the kind that tinkle when you manipulate them with your fingers. They had a couple of spots of rust on them and K was throwing them out. I took them for the garden instead. The gravel they stand on used to be cobalt blue but had faded over time.

I think they look stunning now. I'm very partial to the absolute beauty of rust. If I had a large enough bank account, I'd commission sculptures in raw steel.




And K made lunch so I didn't have a bagel after all.

Charlotte and Melissa

I'm currently reading an excellent book: Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson.

Human Croquet is about a girl, Isobel Fairfax, who lives with her father who left her when she was eight(?) and then came back, seven years later, Vinny, who's her emotionless and grumpy aunt, her stepmother, Debbie, who's nearly the same age as her, and her alien-obsessed brother. Her mother disappeared little before her father left her and her brother. Human Croquet is a wonderfully bizarre book, full of twists and fascinating, deep characters.

It comes to mind because two of the characters are called Melissa and Charlotte; names I've been using for Harold's grandmother and great-aunt. I hope no-one thinks I nicked them from here. - I've been using them for years.


Here's something that makes me happy - royalty payments from the three books I have for sale here

I only make a pound or two on each self-published book, but it's jolly gratifying to get a small sum I wasn't expecting. This one covers a three month period. I don't thing I'll be living on my writing for a while yet. I'm in the process of making up a fourth book, one of haiga.

Wheat stalks and Gas stand

I spotted this on the street as I walked the dogs this morning. The gas stand, a little roadside cupboard, is about two feet high and the wheat two-thirds of that. Delightful.

I shall look forward to it ripening.