Review: In Defence of Protozoans
Aberdeen launch of Stuart B. Campbell's new collection
Books and Beans, Aberdeen
[Map]
On the evening of Thursday the 15th the Books and Beans audience enjoyed one of
the startling unlikely juxtapositions of style, form, and view-point that have become
a New Words hall mark. The launch of Stuart B. Campbell's 4th collection, with attendant
contributions by Catherine Jaraszkiewicz and Catriona Yule, was a reminder of how
diverse and deeply felt are the concerns of poets living and working in the region.
Stuart B. Campbell's preoccupations with accuracy, the gathering of knowledge,
and his multi-disciplinary forays to find and represent objective truths and meaning
are redolent of the work of nineteenth century humanist scientists collecting and
categorizing, building living moral taxonomies. Stuart read with the voice, rhythm
and challenge of a slow swell against rock, his audience leaning forward to catch
the softer notes. Serious, scholarly, committed, his book deserves to do well.
Catherine Jaraszkiewicz was a complete and polemical surprise. She presented
apparently sentimental autobiographical narratives in commonplace rhythms and end
rhymes each of which ended with a sting in the tail or a slap in the face —
her themes revealed as Treblinka, paedophilia, suicide and the Katyn Forest massacre.
The audience gasped and applauded loudly.
Those who love Catriona Yule's work will have been further enamoured. She
has progressed naturally to writing haiku now. The resulting delicate metaphors
and her beguiling delivery were perfectly matched. Her ability to sustain a metaphor
wonderfully was demonstrated in a crocus poem. The fabulous Ms Yule is in full danger
of becoming exquisite. Hurrah.
Review by John Mackie
Photos by Cal Wallace
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