Niall O'Sullivan reviews Matthew Caley and the Reactions 5 anthology

Niall O'Sullivan covers two books in this review column. The first is Matthew Caley's collection The Scene of My Former Triumph, from Wrecking Ball Press at £7.99. O'Sullivan presents Caley as a poet's poet whose wide vocabulary and constant references to art and literature sit alongside South London slang. He notes that Ken Smith was an early champion, that Caley twice came runner-up in the National Poetry Competition and that his first book, Thirst, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize.

Taking the new book, the reviewer points to an early poem about squatters and quarrelling lovers that crowds in Frida Kahlo, Manet and a nineties indie band, and reads it as a statement of method: the poet notes every small detail of decay. He mentions Ammonius Saccus, in which philosophy reading mingles with city noise, along with a bawdy comic poem about something found in a Brixton gutter and the formally daring Pantomime Horse and Arctic Fleece. His verdict is that the book has urgency and wit, and rewards rereading.

The second book is Reactions 5, an anthology edited by Clare Pollard and published by Pen & Inc, also at £7.99. O'Sullivan begins with the performance poets, singling out Tim Turnbull, praised for formal control and sharp humour, and Tim Wells, who ranges from a mock-aristocratic fantasy to urban elegy, and he welcomes the New York performer Cheryl B for her frankness. He then runs through the page-based debutants: Daljit Nagra on shifting language and immigrant communities, Gareth Jones on quiet middle-class feeling, Sinead Wilson in a dark London gothic vein, and Irish poets Leanne O'Sullivan and Rebecca O'Connor. Readers wanting a snapshot of British poetry around the time of this issue will find it here.

Work

The Scene of My Former Triumph; Reactions 5: New Poetry

Author

Matthew Caley; edited by Clare Pollard

Publisher

Wrecking Ball Press; Pen & Inc

Reactions 5 is an optimistic reminder of tomorrows big guns as well as a platform for today's writers

Niall O'Sullivan, The Wolf, issue 11