Poetry Reviews: Tom Kelly Collections
‘Too Much Toothache
The Malaise of Modern Poetry’
By Alan Dent
Penniless Press Publications, November 2015
SOMEWHERE IN HEAVEN by Tom Kelly ISBN 978 1 906700 17 1 £6.99
LOVE-LINES by Tom Kelly ISBN 978 1 906700 04 1 £6.99
DREAMERS IN A COLD CLIMATE by Tom Kelly ISBN 978 0 9554027 4 6 £6.99 Red Squirrel Press
Tom Kelly’s work is rooted in his native north-east, especially Jarrow. He writes mainly short, spare pieces. His style is direct and unadorned. He is very good at evoking the emotions which belong to particular moments, and in Love-Lines especially, touches on a range of experiences common to us all in our families. His work gets very interesting where it arrives at the seam between our public and private selves. He writes of his working-class upbringing and some of his poems are located in the economic and social reality of the north-east. Yet he is never far away from the personal; there is always some echo in his work which reminds you that our economic and social activity exists so that we can do what really matters: build those loving relationships which touch what the cold world of money, production and efficiency leave aside. This is not to suggest he dismisses the public world as futile; on the contrary, but through his work there runs a strain of dismay at how we have allowed dehumanizing forces to invade and occupy. He is acutely aware of how this has been negative for his class. What is heartening about these books is that they resist a lurch into a political response which wrenches away from the tenderness and connection which he knows is essential to our well-being. Taken together, these three collections provide a clear view of Kelly’s preoccupations and style. They are the work of a secure talent a keen conscience and a good heart.
Tom Kelly has published five collections The Time Office, Red Squirrel Press ISBN 978-906700-35-5 is a selection with some new work. Kelly is a north-east poet and his work is grounded in the hardship and distance from metropolitan power. The former inspires less bitterness than a protective embracing of these values of gentleness, understanding and mutual support which oppose the forces of dehumanization. Kelly is the poet of small gestures. He eschews great rhetorical flourishes, fixed certainties or confident predictions, preferring to search for those moments of happy surprise amidst the dross which are as heartening as a primrose on a bombsite. He is a poet of simple clarity but of no glib simplicities. His work rings with Geordie accents, the sound of steel on steel, the silence of imposed idleness and the despairing sigh of poverty; but there is always a kernel of joy and a memorable line. Anyone who missed his five collections would do well to catch up.
Alan Dent
http://www.pennilesspress.co.uk/books/too_much_toothache.htm
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