W. H. Oliver

My favourite book shop on Cecil Court is by far Peter Ellis, they have about five shelves dedicated to first edition poetry books and I love going in and fondling North and South (Bishop). It's beautiful and far too expensive but one day it will be mine. Outside the shop is a little stand for lots of cheap books, and I found a poetry book by W.H. Oliver called Out of Season. I had never heard of him before, and he was published by Oxford University Press, which is interesting because I've been learning lots lately about how they dumped all their poets about ten years ago because they weren't getting any money from poetry, interesting article on it here.

But anyway, I got to reading Oliver and I really liked it. The book is split into three parts, Reference Points, Histories and Myths and Emblems.


Generation Gap

Adult and child interrogate each other.
Their eyes are locked together as they pass,
strangers who know each other much too well
for either's good. one wonders if return
is possible, and then, of any help; the other
look's where he's going, hardly wants to go.
And more, should one contain the two he will
draw tight a line within and hold at each
hooked and barbed end a self he cannot loose
nor bring to hand. The line will never break;
child and adult hold each other captive.

I have a couple of weaknesses in poetry, one being that I love good representations of both childhood and aging, which is why I think this poem has been rolling around in my head for the past couple of days. So much about this poem is brilliantly formed, the line break directly after 'The line will never break' caused a sharp intake of breath, and the imagery of hooks and barbs and locks and interrogation is painful and suffocating and frustrating and makes me think about growing old which makes me feel sick; the best poems make one feel sick, I think. I am going to find more of him.

I tried to find a picture of the beautiful cover but all that came up was pictures of Miquita Oliver and Auden, so I'll scan it in soon, in the mean time, go to Peter Ellis bookshop and perve on the first editions.
See you there!