Colin Herd – click + collect (Boilerhouse Press)
Book of two halves, Click, and then Collect.
Click begins with the TV remote and the trigger, soldiers captured, shown on television, stripped to their underwear and soon to be dead.
Herd’s confidence is detectable in that he – or he appears to – write easily and relatively unencumbered by the dead weight of ancient verse. Pound’s ‘heave’ against pentameter is definitely over here. No sweat.
But he isn’t presenting a cod modernist piece either, that assumes it has to arrive fractured as though a typesetting accident has occured which looks like a Microsoft Word default.
It’s subtle. It’s dark and light at the same time. It’s everyday and slightly otherworldy at the same time. I applaud all those qualities.
Brilliant book, get it. Then you can find out what Collect is all about.
– Steve Hanson
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