Customer Reviews

Touchwood

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Usually Davis specializes in the neat epigram, the miniature, and it's interesting that he has a poem about painters of miniatures. He often also seems to be most comfortable writing about life second-hand, through the medium of literature, history or art. This time there are some very personal pieces and a few others that are as fine as anything he's ever done. Esther is an amazing tour de force: it rattles along as narrative, very quick and very witty, but at the same time uses a variety of traditional forms including a villanelle not usually associated with narrative. I'd strongly recommend the book just for this poem.

A fine collection of poems, almost entirely metrical and employing full rhyme - by no stretch of the imagination "chopped up prose" - scarcely could that tired old put-down be applied less appropriately. Certainly epigrammatic - by turns witty and (as in 'A Photograph of Two Brothers') highly affecting. A magnificent collection from one of the most enjoyable of contemporary poets.

The cover of Dick Davis' collection, Touchwood, is a dull brown with small image of tree rings. Rather boring cover, and for once the cover predicts the book. Touchwood is divided into three sections. The poems in Section one are generally dull. Davis switches between pretentious phrasings to what can only be described as prose written as verse. I found most of the rhymes to be predictable, forced, or just bad. Section two gets a little better. As an epigramist, Davis is pretty good. The short nature of the poem suits his style, and brings out a wit that the first section is completely void of. The bitterness that comes out in Davis writing is well suited for shorter poems, that and if the poem ends in only a few lines it doesn't have time to bore you. But towards the end of this section two the quick, witty epigrams we had been reading disappeared and the final four or five poems revert back to what was seen in the first part. Section three is a long narrative poem, "Esther," which retells the story of Esther and Mordacai. Now, normally I like narratives. But in the longer poem (and this one goes on for 17 pages) Davis loses control of his story, rhyme, and interest. It's a book that had a lot of potential to be great, but fell short because Davis lost touch with what he is good at. Of note, Davis defines the word touchwood: 'decayed wood...used as tinder'. Fitting I think.