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"A Knowable World" by Sarah Wardle
Bloodaxe £7.95

This autobiographical collection promised something of the unspoken, a viewpoint rarely written; that of the bipolar self within the constraints of the mental health system. For the author to write such a book, no doubt took courage, but the result is, ultimately, somewhat mixed.

With such an intriguing subject matter, I had expected poetry that would offer me a new insight into the frustrations experienced within bipolar episodes. Whilst there are moments that attempt to tease these emotions out, such as ‘Exchange’, in which the notions of the reflected and fractured self are interwoven, it feels that the author is somehow holding back – the metaphor is under worked and the result is a poem that only offers us a recollection and not a revelation.

Wardle has a passion for end-rhyme, this is not in itself a crime, but the effect of this constant trope makes me question her word choice; for example in ‘Semantics of Psychiatry’,"fathom" is rhymed with "bunkum" - is this the best word or simply there to satisfy the (half)rhyme? In the opening poem, ‘Magnetic Resonance Imaging’, the a,b,a,b rhyme scheme distracts somewhat from the potential intensity of the poem;

Then for an hour loud sounds crashed and banged,
as I lay in this nuclear missile
of clinical white and my brain was scanned
for shading of schizophrenic detail.

The use of lazy phrases, such as "sounds crashed and banged", adds little to force the reader on; although admittedly the tension found on the next line fosters a more interesting image.

There is also a tendency for poetic ticks; whilst Wardle’s understandable conflict with authority is, no doubt, relevant to her experience, its repetition is found in no fewer than eight of the poems. There are also a clutch of four/five line poems which add little by way of interest or depth to the collection. But by far, the most obtrusive tick was the use of beginning and end: ‘a starting to an end’ ('Turquoise'), ‘the beginning of ending’ ('Found Audience') and ‘a beginning of ending’ ('Sarah, wife of Abraham'). I am sure that others may argue a case for ‘trope’ rather than tick – but because these poems are positioned together in a seven page space, it forced me to question whether there might be a more intriguing way to show this sense of collapse.