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The Ruffian on the Stair by Eric Ratcliffe.
Four Quarters Press, 7 The Towers, Stevenage, Herts SG1 1HE £1.50.


The Ruffian on the Stair by Eric Ratcliffe, as the title suggests, is largely about death, Death is energetically portrayed together with forces and individuals of almost equal energy. In the finely vivid poem The Magician and Manifestation - 'Fixed but alert, he meditated standing, / rooted in the transept of the structure / he had founded, closed in the astral dream / of a magician's moment, ghost nave behind / and all pews empty...'  via 'Red candle, slowly opening gilded book / advanced their images beyond the veils...' to 'When living rock with head of fate opposes, / if he looked up, death might be what it chooses.'  Other poems are elegiac and tender, such as mi roger '...I still believed / you were not there / mi roger / not you in khaki / in the long box / on the rocking cart / not you returning / on that day / / bloody cloth / torn open / emptied of / our summer love'.  Mi roger is part of a long poem, Hill 60 and in another section, Farmer Boromee, the first man, a farmer, killed by a Frenchman in the Thiepval Ridge offensive.  This is counterpointed with an image of the farmer and his wife feeding the hens, simmering coffee on the farm stove.   These poems, some with grim or sad images are enjoyable because of their compassionate humanity, the cogent imagery and feeling of the beauty of the world in the middle of these things. 'The plough has lifted the message / of the faceless spine to the lark, / crushing her femurs, surrendered / as if to a ghost from the park.' (from Corpse)