Review of Skine by Andrew Taylor

Reviews by Andrew Taylor (Liverpool, England)

 

Skine by Rhys Trimble

 

2012

ISBN: 978-1-907812-83-5   

87 pages 

Perfect bound

£7.00

 

The Knives Forks and Spoons Presss

122 Birley Street

Newton-Le-Willows

Merseyside

WA12 9UN

www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk

 

I have previously written about the recent (ish) rise of the pamphlet in this and other magazines. It really has been a pleasure to see the rise of a press such as The Knives Forks and Spoons. Rhys Trimble is a Welsh poet whose work literally speaks for itself. This book contains no information about the author, no blurb, no author bio or details about the poems previous publication history. I know that Trimble is Welsh (it is apparent from the poems also) as I previously came upon his work in the magnificent Angel Exhaust #21 Each Aeon Free after the First One: The Welsh Underground. I like this anonymity.

 

‘Skine’ according to the Urban Dictionary is defined thus:

Adj. unbearably cool sexy and juicy

Synonyms. awesome, sweet

 

a contextual example is “Did you see that new movie? It’s so skine’.

 

Trimble’s collection is divided into three parts. This is useful as the first and more difficult of the sections is partly written in Welsh, a language I need a dictionary to engage with and then that is not as reliable as it seems.

 

It is safe to say that the reader’s experience upon engagement with these pieces of poetry will be variable. I for one, enjoy a challenge, a visit to the avant garde on occasion does nobody any harm! Many readers and for that matter reviewers (who should really know better) see a text scattered on a page and engage like a manic Daily Mail reader and almost shout ‘but it’s not poetry!’ I see the scatter and see an alternative poetry reading experience.

 

For reasons none other than difficulty with reproducing the text, I shall highlight some of the more ‘traditional’ of the pieces from the third section ‘Precast Concrete Bridge Support Units’:

 

            4.

 

            mutible arrow           

            tress on trains hair puncu

            888 lucky logogram &

            simulacra in a graphic

            score of fucked-up

            teableaux gothique, the dead

            ship, rusted accents

            legs akimbo, warrington

            bank quay – kissing her

            allergic lips – measure

            time at a cut’s healing

 

 

I have read and reviewed enough poetry to realise that despite this text’s uniform layout, it is no doubt intended to be read or rather, performed by the poet. Trimble is due to perform at a forthcoming event I am attending so I can check his performance out rather than use the voyeuristic YouTube. Trimble is an interesting poet who will no doubt be getting up the noses of certain members of the so called non-established poetry intelligentsia. I like the fact that these young bucks (male or female) challenge the pre-conception of what the alternative poetry scene should be attempting to do. Rhys Trimble or our esteemed Poet Laureate writing about the white cliffs of Dover? Mmm let me think….