Jim Bennett: The Man Who Tried To Hug Clouds
(Bluechrome Publishing, Portishead. ISBN 1-904781-31-4, pb, £7.99)

Les Merton: As Yesterday Begins
(Bluechrome Publishing, Portishead. ISBN 1-904781-30-6, pb, £7.99)

Dee Rimbaud: Dropping Ecstacy With The Angels
(Bluechrome Publishing, Portishead. ISBN 1-904781-06-3, pb, £7.99)

These books from the publisher Bluechrome are sturdy, clearly printed, interestingly laid out and certainly not slim. The dated appearance of the covers' desk top collage, however, gives early indication that what you are about to read may not be as innovative as some of the titles might suggest.

As Yesterday Begins by Les Merton starts off with a sequence of nostalgic, but far from transcendent, hippy poems recalling the naivety of a way of life long since lost, prior to introducing us to one of the other major topics of his writing, Cornwall. But here and throughout the more personal lyrics, we remain on the surface of the language and are seldom borne away by it. Merton's work is at times clever and he employs the dramatic shift at the end of some of his poems to good effect, but he is at his best when vernacular and humorous.

In Dropping Ecstasy With The Angels by Dee Rimbaud you feel you are in the presence of a committed writer who probably has more interesting work to follow but has not fully achieved it here. His portraits of women and their lives are sensitive, imaginative and he presents their suffering with feeling and understanding. I enjoyed reading 'My Father, The Painter' with its neat balance of language and emotion, and poems such as 'Blood Leaf', 'Vagina Envy' and 'Virtual Virus'. The drug poems which the book's title exploits, in fact form a fairly small section of the book, but for me they were tired (Burroughs, Dylan and Welch having arrived before and squeezed the surprise out of it), though you may imagine cognoscenti nodding sagely at some of the images and references. Rimbaud draws heavily for his imagery on Celtic, Christian and Indian mythology and often, especially in his more religious poems, betrays himself as a New Age priest, whom you either agree with or are damned. Like Merton, he uses eastern forms; but as with Merton's Haiku, he lacks the lightness of touch of a Basho to guide the reader on a pathway of discovery, preferring instead to provide the commentary. A novel by Rimbaud is due out this August which, given his facility with language and good exploitation of the prose poem, should make for an interesting read.

Jim Bennett is a performance artist and in The Man Who Tried To Hug Clouds he presents us with a full range of his material. Performance poetry needs to be direct, comprehensible on first hearing and possess a discernible individual voice, all of which are present in this volume. His writing about love and loss is poignant and his poetic monologue 'Down in Liverpool' works well, but as with the other two writers there is a déjà vu about the writing — too many echoes here of the Liverpool poets of the 60s and 70s and Beat poetry of nearly a generation earlier. The language he uses is simple and crafted and his work at its best reveals a genuine human warmth, humour and sensitivity; the blend of individual quirkiness and Scouse folk-wisdom really does cry out to have the author's voice performing it for you. There is a CD available and this may be the best starting point into Bennett's writing if you haven't already come across it.

Included in the works of each of these three poets are strong elements of comment, portrait and autobiography, giving them, if not an automatic artistic value, an interesting social one. Each is a prolific writer and each articulates the world as he experiences it. Interestingly, they share a dismissiveness of intellectual life, yet proudly present their learning as if acquired by a sort of osmosis. However, each is true to his vision and honest and direct in the way he presents it.

copyright © John Couth, 2004.

John Couth was educated at Warwick and Exeter Universities; he now lives as a freelance writer, photographer and translator; his publications include Buriton – Spirit of a Village, and Aveyron. He lives and works in Britain and France.