South Reviews
Hamish Whyte
A Bird in the Hand – Hamish Whyte; Shoestring Press, £8.95
‘A poem, say, is the act/ of perception in progress’ states Hamish Whyte and this appealing collection starts with a small meditation on a photograph of Matisse holding a dove. Photographs are important: they stabilize things for continued observation. Whyte is a very visual poet, with not just photographs but paintings and museum pieces holding his attention. He is always methodical too, watching where he puts his artistic feet. Turning the original idea of photograph as stabilizer a few degrees, he says ‘it’s just what the camera saw’ of a postcard at St Ives. There is an imagist feel to this poetry.
It is not surprising therefore, that he is instinctively drawn to the miniature rather than the broad landscape, to the detail rather than to the whole. You would expect him to be attracted to haiku (which he is) and in poetry he looks for ‘mostly slim vols not fat collections’. The love poems are touched with this – cutting a finger while chopping an onion distracts him into a longing for his loved one. He admires his father because he ‘fought small but important battles’.
It would be good to think that Hamish Whyte has more to say. This is an attractive and diverting collection.
Page(s) 60
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