Time Signatures
ISBN 978-1-956782-14-1
Broadstone Books
418 Ann Street
Frankfort, KY
USA
40601-1929
[NB: Time Signatures is available in the UK through Blackwell’s (Oxford) online catalogue.]
‘Estill Pollock, a native of Kentucky, has lived in England for forty years.’ This is part of the blurb on the back of Pollock’s book; this is useful information. The debate rages with regards to the importance (or not) of a writer’s life. It’s important in this case, as Pollock is a poet whose work I’m unfamiliar with, yet I recognise magazines singing his praises. It’s also important when we consider the work itself.
The book is prefaced by a longish statement announcing that ‘the narratives here are neither history nor biography, but they share characteristics of each.’ This interests me in thinking about Pollock’s motivation. Unlike John Seed, who took Mayhew’s writings on London, where he employed a firm device: every word in Seed’s book Pictures from Mayhew was drawn from Henry Mayhew’s writings on London, Seed writing ‘through’ the work; Pollock reverts to ‘telling’ his subjects’ stories with accuracy.
On first reading, Pollock appears to be adhering to biography. For example, we know that Dylan Thomas did indeed die in St Vincent’s Hospital in 1953 and that Mary Wollstonecraft attempted suicide on Putney Bridge in 1795. However, I’m most confident in using the poem “Grace Notes, 1966” to focus on this review. The poem’s subject matter is The Beatles, a band that I know a fair bit about.
The use of the ‘time signature’ of 1966 is interesting here. Pollock reverts to the earliest days of the band’s history to start the narrative: 1962 and their trips to Hamburg (all factually correct). If we take a look at the poem itself, we can get a flavour of Pollock’s writing:
Seven sharp, they begin‒fifteen
takes
Of “Love Me Do”‒this time
Paul not happy with the drumming [...]
And from later in the poem, where we actually see some of Pollock’s creativity shine:
April 7, 1966‒a zephyr rising from cool mountains
Across scented leaves
The sea swallowing itself, a river swollen with light
Now waves, now grains, figures becoming, becoming
Becoming‒John
ghostly at the boundary, loops
Sounding echo [...]
Here we have Pollock describing the process (or at least the acid trip) that Lennon undertook to write the song “Tomorrow Never Knows.” A quick ‘google’ confirms that the band was in the studio on that date.
The real strength of Pollock’s work is when he breaks from the biographical elements that he employs so readily, as above. Though of course there is always the mystery and intrigue associated with writers’ biographies, I wonder whether more of Pollock himself was needed in these poems. As noted, when the imagination meets the biography the poems shine. What is to be admired, especially, are the risks that Pollock takes in terms of form. There are some long poems here. For example, “Grace Notes, 1966” runs to fourteen pages. Of course, if the reader is absorbed into a poem about the subjects on offer here, there’s a real opportunity to dive into the material.
‒Andrew Taylor, for The Journal
