Full Description
Ghost & Other Sonnets will disturb and delight. Divided into three sections the sequence begins with the Ghost Sonnets. Using traditional ghost narratives Monk condenses them into the tightly controlled sonnet form and twists them into something totally new. Aficionados of ghost stories will revel in this reinvention of a popular genre. In the second section, & Sonnets there is a drastic mood change as personal experience and harrowing news items root the poems into the mundane world of everyday existence. Some of these poems delves into the dark reality of 'unnatural' happenings: the tragedies of the Beslan massacre or the Chinese cockle pickers whilst others rescue the banal and sweep it off into the realms of the fantastical. The final section, Other Sonnets inhabits the cusp between Ghost and &. Here chance and inexplicable coincidence meet in the ghostly multiplications of language.
Working within the conventional form of the sonnet this sequence is on the surface one of Monk's most accessible works but the simplicity is deceptive as each poem shifts and veers into unexpected complexity. Words shimmy down the page to their unpredictable conclusion leaving the reader delighted, disconcerted and baffled. Monk brings together disparate strands of uncertainty in a fragile world and she does it with her usual tenderness, ferocity and humour.
Contents
Contents
Ghost
1 'It started with a tryst and twist of ...'
2 'Light a nightlight flimsy ...'
3 'Agitation shocked the public library ...'
4 'Swallow-tail moth artificially lit ...'
5 'Desperation clung to petulant ...'
6 'Sided by accident she wandered in a ...'
7 'Chronic webbings. Intrigue. ...'
8 'The disembodied head looked ...'
9 'Then another door shut in ...'
10 'An unearthly grown so sickly he ...'
11 'Newly installed double ...'
12 'The trans-Pennine late night train ...'
13 'An angularity of hate stoked the room ...'
14 'Was it moving? In a heart ...'
15 'Spell binder driven wet. Two ...'
16 'Exaggeration of bird song impaled ...'
17 'A cumulonimbus of cupped hands ...'
18 'Bypassing that room no one dared ...'
19 'Sciatica nerves slews posture ...'
20 'Ghost of her ghosts ...'
&
21 'In fear we lay longitudinal. ...'
22 'The heart-shaped lavender was ...'
23 'Parting such sweet succulent flesh ...'
24 'She strained her eyes through muslin ...'
25 'A rare whiff. Aromas were way loud ...'
26 'Big-time snow deafened. Bedrooms ...'
27 'Wasted suburban garden ...'
28 'It recurs: the ...'
29 'A second glance and then another ...'
30 'When the fog partially cleared ...'
31 'Not waking and finding herself ...'
32 'Onto my frozen fingers came ...'
33 'Driven to the edge by wind chimes ...'
34 'So remote it was beyond ...'
35 'Army of shadows infiltrates ...'
36 'No cigarettes in the ashtray. Between a ...'
37 'Topping the head ...'
38 'Shocking pink lips kissed sepia ...'
39 'What makes you look in at the ...'
40 'In her heart of hearts larks and ...'
Other
41 'Cornering on a black fen. From kerb to ...'
42 'Something wicked this way ...'
43 'Prising eyes against the future ...'
44 'After three days with ...'
45 'Batten down the letter box. ...'
46 'She slid one out. Delicately ...'
47 'A distraught toe ...'
48 'At the bottom of the bowl it nudged his ...'
49 'What malice-driven hand ...'
50 'Opening the envelope he found another ...'
51 'When a storm sweeps up from ...'
52 'For some reason it was in a ...'
53 'Reconfiguring spaghetti ...'
54 'Have I written this before? This ...'
55 'Whatever it was it came to pass the ...'
56 'Time out of mind the beasts of the pillows ...'
57 'Stumpy staring in ...'
58 'Water from the tap wasn't water ...'
59 'Hefted sheep leap a burning moat. Mint ...'
60 'Thus spake someone from the water ...'
61 'Others floundered. Crashed awkward ...'
62 'Swan song. Anticipation blitzed in a ...'
