For me, reading a poetry collection by a single poet can become a highly intimate affair.  You are given direct access to the thought processes and feelings of the creator. Sometimes this peep into the simplest or most intimate moments or thoughts leaves you feeling like a voyeur, stalking through the mundane made majestic and the passionate bottled. Sometimes it is so raw that you have to peep at a poem or two and then put it down, only picking it up again when red cheeked flush of embarrassment has abated and sometimes the intimacy and insight is recognisable, warm, loving and welcoming.  You stay and observe, you return and update yourself on the current status of the poet through the poem. 

It is appropriate then that ‘A Jar of Sticklebacks’ by David Selzer had a virtual launch on Facebook, the contemporary place holder for voyeuristic observation and socialnetwork-vérité. A virtual launch for more than a virtual book.

It is the sense of place, or places that I take from my first reading. Places I know and live or have lived in. Places I can imagine and have imagined.  It helped I think that I read these whilst sat in North Wales on my travels and back at home in Liverpool.  Two of the featured places in the volume.  

My favourite of the collection is the exquisite ‘Under November Skies’, the senses are stimulated.  You see and hear what David is remembering. That captured moment as vivid as a posted picture is topped by a killer final two sentences that underscores that portrait delicately.

Some of the places are dark.  The research I did following ‘Lost’, a tale of a brutal child murder, brought me straight back for a second read and a deeper shudder. A poem that made me jolt as a father and a employer of the phrase sweet FA, a phrase I often heard as a child in London. I never will again.

From Cheshire to Soweto, via Beaumaris and Chirk, David draws us in then churns us around, with autobiography and social history, from seagulls to sticklebacks. So much to offer, rich and compact throughout.  David has an ability to both structure and play with language that I envy.

Peppered too sparingly throughout are beautiful images by photographer Sylvia Selzer. As visual as the poems are alone, the images and the obvious connection with the poet himself adds a further layer of connection and warmth as a reader. I would have loved more images and look forward to a greater collaboration from this more than appropriate illustrator and collaborator.

I am also impressed with the volumes price, a slim £2.20.  Cheap enough for a punt and for the 20 poems and sprinkle of pictures a seemingly slim reward for the creators and indi publishers Armadillo Central.

I said first reading. Like all good poetry collections, ‘A Jar of Sticklebacks’ is an anthology I will return too, with the bonus of being on my iphone and mac in perpetuity.

Gav Cross

Feb 2012

Link to the collection:

http://www.armadillocentral.com/poetry/1-ebooks-and-books/8-poetry/9-poetry?vmcchk=1

Armadillo Central

http://www.armadillocentral.com/

David Selzer’s Website

http://www.davidselzer.com/

Sylvia Selzer link

http://www.armadillocentral.com/photographers/sylvia-selzer