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<\/a><\/p>\nSusie Wild\u2019s Better Houses<\/em> announces a new, highly distinctive and exciting poetic voice. The subjects of this collection \u2013 a boyfriend mowing the lawn, an ill pet, a pub crawl \u2013 are universal, and give the poems an immediate accessibility. The author\u2019s balance between opening the door for the reader, and then hitting them with the poem\u2019s highly original approach to language and a slightly slant way of looking at the world, make these poems highly entertaining and rewarding.<\/p>\n One thing I was immediately struck by was the collection\u2019s management of shorter poems. \u2018The Elephant Fayre\u2019 tells the story of someone deciding to run away at the age of six. The great title, and the poem\u2019s opening, introduce the strong idea with admirable economy: \u2018You were in a hurry to leave\/home. The summer of \u201985, and you were\/six.\u2019 From here, we move into a distinctive linguistic approach, which captures childhood perfectly: \u2018you raced\/flutterbies. Certain you belonged\/at this festival of gadabouts\u2026\u2019 Most importantly, the poem has a great ending which really makes it stand up and live: after the runaway child has \u2018found\/a new family \u2013 a gypsy\/caravan to call\/your own,\u2019 we have this marvellous last sentence: \u2018They paid you\/in ice cream, then \u2013 the traitors \u2013\/they gave you back.\u2019<\/p>\n This great formula, of accessible ideas, distinctive language and a telling ending, enlivens a number of poems across the collection. \u2018Thirst\u2019 opens with a highly dramatic sentence:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My head is under<\/p>\n the surface,<\/p>\n my grandfather\u2019s hand<\/p>\n <\/p>\n holding it down for 1, 2, 3,<\/p>\n a punishment for something,<\/p>\n in the flooding shallows<\/p>\n <\/p>\n of the stream.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From here we move into some lovely language \u2013 the sea \u2018Spits me out grainy,\/briny-eyed, starfish-limbed\u2019 \u2013 before a jump forwards in time gives us this stunning ending: \u2018Now I sleep beside a tumbler,\/liquid lapping the brim.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018Delivery,\u2019 similarly, begins with an everyday event, and these reflections on fertility:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When she collects,<\/p>\n spilling news<\/p>\n of her purchase \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n a changing mat \u2013<\/p>\n I realise she\u2019s pregnant. Not<\/p>\n fat, our Kiwi at no. 23.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The opposite of what<\/p>\n people say about me, blooming<\/p>\n with my desk job diet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The skilful shift in approach in the final sentence offers us a wonderfully evocative image, opening the poem out, and giving it a lingering power which has us coming back to it:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n See the baby-grows<\/p>\n in rank: empty soldiers<\/p>\n on the washing line out back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These exemplary shorter poems are complemented by the more sustained pieces in this artfully-sequenced collection. I was particularly taken by \u2018Prep,\u2019 a moving description of experiences at boarding school. Alongside a number of poems, including \u2018The Lash Museum,\u2019 the poem showcases the poet\u2019s wonderfully clear eye for childhood memories. The emotive power of \u2018Prep\u2019 is maximised by its unusual focus. The poem\u2019s first section concentrates on the trunk the speaker used to carry possessions back and forth to school, while the second section focuses on food. The poem is a sort of memoir-by-luggage-and-food then, and this unusual choice of focus really disciplines material which could be sentimental into something which is really powerful. The poem\u2019s second section has some excellently-observed memories of childhood: \u2018the thrill of Saturday movies in the boy\u2019s halls, the gift\/of changing the gears on the minibus drive\/back.\u2019 The first section is perhaps even stronger, giving that sense of lugging so much \u2013 clothes, relationships, anxiety \u2013 back and forth from home to school, which is so much a part of that experience. I loved this description of the trunk: \u2018Wine-coloured, brass-tacked,\/back then the trunk puff-chested a term\u2019s worth of bedded\/un-belonging.\u2019 That verb \u2018puff-chested,\u2019 to describe the crammed trunk, but also the pride of the child heading off to school, is a delight.<\/p>\n \u2018The Art of War,\u2019 a similarly sustained piece, draws on the famous Chinese military treatise to explore the realities of a contemporary relationship. The role of technology in love these days combines with the military vocabulary to strong effect: \u2018I\u2026wait for the artillery fire\/\/of texts.\u2019 The poem works through the anxieties of modern relationships \u2013 a borrowed laptop, speculation over engagement rings \u2013 towards this highly effective final sentence: \u2018Deleting my browser history, I gather\/the weapon of myself.\u2019<\/p>\n Arguably even more intriguing are the two extracts we are given from a longer sequence, \u2018Sex Change Disco.\u2019 The first fragment is full of interesting and evocative lines: \u2018a bashful Jack-the-lad smirk turns Jane,\u2019 \u2018I\u2019m swan, laying belly to riverbed,\/to wet stone, wriggling\/\/in the hour between the dog and the wolf.\u2019 The second extract opens with these descriptions and invitation: at her. She is illuminated \u2013 a city species \u2013 in a glowing<\/p>\n <\/p>\n glass box. See her dance. See her flap<\/p>\n <\/p>\n about.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This fragment works towards another powerful and troubling ending:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They ask \u2018boy or girl?\u2019<\/p>\n We might have to dissect her to tell.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The notes at the back of the book tell us that these exciting fragments are part of a longer sequence, a collaboration with an artist, and one thing I wondered was whether a website link could be provided to allow the reader to see the whole sequence. In this sense, \u2018Sex Change Disco\u2019 is representative of Better Houses<\/em> as a whole, as, like all the best collections, it leaves the reader wanting more. The marriage of clarity and accessibility with the highly distinctive voice which is evident in these poems, excitingly and genuinely all this author\u2019s own, make this an accomplished and auspicious debut, and make this poet\u2019s future work something to greatly look forward to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nAll the creatures of the dark visit to take a look<\/p>\n