NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

Fighting Cock were awarded a National Lottery Grant to fund their chapbook series. Judging from Blackwell's collection the money has been well spent. Certainly it's a well produced volume. The author is a lecturer who has been visiting Belarus for eight years and has been moved to commit his experiences and impressions of the place to paper. The result is a collection of accessible and, occassionally, moving poems. Here and there the writing is perhaps a little too literal. The poem JUST A FUR HAT, for example, ends

	Some survive with just
	a fur hat. The bulk just freeze.

	Snow here must be deadened
	by distant memories.

	The flakes are the words
	of distress. They need deciphering.

This is a selection of poems from many years observing nature and wild life in the Seychelles, Australian deserts and in what Blackwell calls 'the intrigues' of his only garden. The poems are well crafted,and observant of details and habits. Subjects include wagtails, waterfowls, swans, woodpeckers, chestnuts,crows, the grey squirrel, ginkgo, poppies, snowdrops, the platypus, the orynx, hedgehogs and snails.

The poetry is realistic and does not indulge in metaphysical asides, and the more successful work seems to be made up of a mixture of detail enhanced by the poet's sense experiences and thoughts on the subjects. For example, from JACKDAW:

				... Your
	elegant bill, with its jack-knife blade.
	is not new to cutting tricks;
	you're a charming little jack-o-napes!

	Holes appear in leaves, in petals.
	Buds disappear. Coming home late:
	crunching sounds. The moon lights up
	their silvery meanderings.