NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
MARTIN STANNARD: CORAL
Leafe Press
4 Cohen Close
Chilwell
Nottingham
NG9 6RW
UK
ISBN 0 9535401 2 X
£2.50 [$7]
email Leafe Press
visit the website of Leafe Press
read an essay by the author on The Zimmerzine Archive
www
NHI review home page
FAQ page
Notes for Publishers
book reviews
anthologies
magazines
other media
Web design by Gerald England
This page last updated: 11th December 2007. 		MARTIN STANNARD: CORAL

A5, stapled, 18 page nicely produced booklet. It is in the usual pleasant format of the Leafe Press booklets and, as expected, the poetry leans very much towards the experimental — and here we go with the horse that wanders aimlessly in the night, as Chloe is informed:

	& in the morning (don't worry: I really don't
	care if you spend the night here or not)
	the rolling grasslands will welcome or reject us
	("Mais nous sommes le monde.")
The subject is maintained throughout. There is a conversation going on with Chloe:
			Chloe, the day we decided
	that to have children was going to be a bit like
	planting an acorn & one of us running away
		I remember that day
	although (Je n'ai rien plein d'esprit pour dire à son sujet)
	I have nothing witty to say about it
and it is obvious from the outset that Chloe is missed and life continues in emptiness and self-pity:
	how I'm happy to be on my own (not counting
	the fish) it's hardly surprising nobody believes me
There is one poem to a page and each has been given a title, but they form a sequence
or 2448 words including 'happenstance' and 'plangent'.
The tone is chatty and very prosy:
	I've been inspired by clouds
	Chloe, borne upon the wings
	of swans Integrity is everything
The language is simplistic and without punctuation, as shown above; and the sense relies on a feeling of acute loneliness. There is an exhaustion of grief over Chloe with signs of the beginnings of the healing process.

reviewer: Doreen King.