{"id":372,"date":"2011-09-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=372"},"modified":"2020-12-09T14:38:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T14:38:54","slug":"mark-burnhope-reviews-another-use-of-canvas-by-angus-sinclair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/mark-burnhope-reviews-another-use-of-canvas-by-angus-sinclair\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Burnhope reviews 'Another Use of Canvas' by Angus Sinclair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defending Sinclair\u2019s Title<\/span>

Another Use of Canvas<\/span><\/a>, Angus Sinclair (24pp, \u00a35.00, Gatehouse Press)<\/span>

Sinclair is both wrestler and poet, a paradox immediately addressed in his debut pamphlet\u2019s title, which introduces tensions between wrestling as entertainment, and as art-form. Many poems comment on lives off-canvas, out of camera-shot: \u2018soft peripheral shapes \/ I understand to be bodies, \/ visual murmurs\u2019. \u2018Looking Up at the Lights\u2019 begins in the ring (\u2018\u2026a cold fizzing in my neck; \/ something has slipped or pulled.\u2019) then pans outwards, so that the \u2018white lights suspended above\u2019 become hospital lights, and the poem becomes a reflection on infirmity:<\/span>

    and think how an operating theatre<\/span>
    is like a wrestling arena;<\/span>

    the outcome less certain.<\/span>

I\u2019ll admit: I was smiling to see my childhood wrestling fandom turned into effective poetry. \u2018The Saint versus Lord Nelson\u2019 recreates the colours, commentary and rough-and-tumble of popular wrestling. Pace, rhythm and sound bring the scene from screen to page:<\/span>

    Almost before the bell is rung Lord Nelson<\/span>
    tries to swing and bundle his rival The Saint,<\/span>
    belly-bomb him to the mat for the quick fall \u2013<\/span>
    but The Saint side-steps, little matador working<\/span>
    Nelson\u2019s weight against him, all that power<\/span>
    sent crashing to the corner\u2026<\/span>

Another style which has made its way into contemporary wrestling is Mexican Lucha Libre, whose brightly-coloured masks look back to Mexican folk traditions like \u201cDia de los Muertos\u201d, with its now-famous floral skulls. Sinclair uses this material in \u2018Face\u2019, which begins: \u2018A boxer bleeds his nose, eye, mouth. \/ A wrestler bleeds his forehead. \/ His invisible crown of thorns.\u2019 I\u2019m reminded of other Biblical uses of the forehead: anointing for healing or burial; bearing the mark of Christ or The Beast. The crown of thorns is a symbol of humiliation, a theme which appears throughout, and transports us to the folk-magical close:<\/span>

In the garden, Adam and Eve<\/span>
cover not only their bodies<\/span>
but their faces too.<\/span>

*<\/span>

All night, folk-devils<\/span>
try and remove the masks<\/span>
of little gods.<\/span>

If I wanted to nitpick: \u2018Face\u2019 scratches the surface of its material, and I wish it had weaved its strands together for longer. And while the repetitions of \u2018Muscle Memory\u2019 are appropriate to its theme, they make its final line less than surprising. But I don\u2019t. By the time I\u2019ve reached the final poem, \u2018Canvas\u2019, its blend of violence with careful, lyrical observance of the body leaves me in little doubt that Sinclair was right. Wrestling can be artful:<\/span>

    The ring\u2019s cross-irons have developed a bend<\/span>
    which exactly matches the curve of your spine.<\/span>
    Your bones creak in conversation with the ring.<\/span>





<\/font><\/p>\n

….reviewed by Mark Burnhope<\/a>
<\/font><\/div>\n



<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defending Sinclair\u2019s TitleAnother Use of Canvas, Angus Sinclair (24pp, \u00a35.00, Gatehouse Press)Sinclair is both wrestler and poet, a paradox immediately addressed in his debut pamphlet\u2019s title, which introduces tensions between wrestling as entertainment, and as art-form. Many poems comment on lives off-canvas, out of camera-shot: \u2018soft peripheral shapes \/ I understand to be bodies, \/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23770,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions\/23770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}