(Self-published and hand-bound [limited edition, /10, 17cm x 21cm])

REVIEW BY CLARA B. JONES

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“The chap book with Reuben is finally finished…[t]he stitching was the hardest part—getting the holes lined up and not tangling the linen thread. I have had angst over this bit since the project started but I am relieved to find it all worked….” Jan Stead blog, smallwindowstudio

“There was earth inside them, and they dug.” Paul Celan

I regularly peruse Entropy Magazine‘s feature, Where To Submit, and have noticed that a few journals are dedicated exclusively to collaborative writing; and, in the domain of experimental literature, hybrid work—often between writers and visual artists—is not uncommon. Collaboration is difficult, even between the best of friends. There are always issues of coordination and control, not to mention the inevitable conflicts of egos. I collaborated with a colleague once—on a major writing project, and it was the worst experience of my 40-year professional life. Notwithstanding others’ experiences, Reuben Woolley and Jan Stead have produced a joint effort that has yielded outstanding results. water, the pamphlet under review, is a visually stunning creative work showcasing the noteworthy talents of two artists—one a poet, one a printmaker and painter.

Jan Stead answered questions from me via Facebook. I, especially, wanted to know more about her life and work, her inspirations, and her role, as well as her process creating water. What follows is extracted from her responses. She is located in the UK, residing in North Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire where she has a “small window studio.” Often working outside, Nature and, in general, the world around her, are her primary influences. She “admires” David Hockney and, also, draws inspiration from words. “Reuben’s work has recently been very important to me….” A former teacher, Stead now works full-time as an artist.

Regarding the chapbook with Reuben, Stead received five poems from him with a water theme or thread, afterward, preparing the illustrations. In her words: “I made five drypoint plates on metal and decided on a colour palette so there was a coherence [see photo accompanying this review]. I used ultramarine, permanent yellow, permanent red, raw sienna hue and sepia on a textured paper. I followed a ‘traditional order’, the front cover is a Bastard Title i.e. no author name just the title, followed by an introduction as to the composition of the book. This page was signed by us both so I signed first, then it went to Spain for Reuben to sign and then back here. The poem and its illustration were stitched together first in a way that makes them lay flat when the book opens so you can see text and image together.” Further: “ The ‘illustrations’ for the poems are drypoint etchings each are an edition of 10 that is shown as /10. They are made by incising the lines into a metal plate with a variety of sharp hand tools. I retyped Reuben’s poems in an old typewriter font following his layout.” Additional details, including, technical ones, can be found on Stead’s blog and on her Facebook feed.

Reuben Woolley is an internationally recognized poet from the UK who resides in Spain. He has been featured in jacket2 and other venues, he has been interviewed by editors, publishers, academics, and other poets, and his books, chapbooks, and poems have been received enthusiastically by his readers, peers, and publishers, particularly, those who appreciate “exploratory” or political poetry. In addition to writing, Woolley publishes and edits two poetry journals, The Curly Mind, an online venue for innovative work, and, I am not a silent poet, an online journal reserved for poetry with political relevance, especially, topics concerning abuse. Reuben’s “referential” [Marjorie Perloff] poems have an instantly-recognizable style—elements of collage; juxtapositions of words, phrases, and other grammatical units—[apparently] meaningful or not; repetition [from water, the word, “tick”]; soft and hard rhyming [from water, “speak” – “speak,” “light” – “night,”, “ways” –  “waves”]; copious white spaces; innovation and play with grammar and punctuation [especially, use of periods, double-spaces, and back-slashes as partial or full stops—sometimes, along with white spaces, slowing the pace of reading]; lack of capitalization;, as well as, relative consistency of form.

All of these features not only demonstrate that Woolley has “found his niche,” but, also, that his poems have a recognizable and intentional “voice” and persona. In addition, the consistent and repetitive features of his poems unify his work within each poem, within books, and across collections, highlighting a perspective expressed in a 2018 interview: “Miles Davis, John Coltrane, who led me into Free Jazz. [sic] I’m trying to get a Free Poetry of a similar Nature. This does not mean anarchy; no good verse is free. The good poet…controls every element at his or her disposal….” Woolley’s work is in no manner “derivative;” however, he has credited numerous musicians and writers as inspirations—among these are, Paul Celan, Jerome Rothenberg, Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, Denise Levertov, Bob Dylan, Charles Bernstein, Alice Notley, Helen Ivory, and Fran Lock.

water is heavily influenced by literary conventions, apparently, characteristic of all of his poems, since echoes of his last book resonate throughout the brief, new, 5-poem, 5-print, collection. In January 2019, I reviewed that expertly-written and handsomely-produced volume, some time we are heroes, in the online journal, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, observing that: “The repetition of wet things—liquid things—is ubiquitous throughout the text  [ e.g., ‘water,’ ‘blood,’ ‘rain,’ ‘beer,’ ‘breast milk,’ ‘ocean,’ ‘liquor,’ ‘tears’],”, and one notices that the last word of water‘s final poem [“north  water  &  waves”] is “heroes” [“my whispering heroes”], lending water a type of closure or regularity over time. In addition, many words in the new book refer, directly or indirectly, to water, among them, “rain,” “ocean,” “fish,” “sea,” “waves,” and “boats.”

In literature, “water” symbolizes life, cleansing, and rebirth. Reuben’s poems, read, in water, from first to last, can be interpreted as a person’s quest for wholeness over the course of his/her life—over time [from water, “you hear tick tock the old / like fish / remember six seconds repeat / staring a cold night /   tick      / tock              ;”  “a same you say / a doppler / shift  ticktocticktock / we band the waves  a truly / sea”]. Though, throughout water, there seems to be no necessary correspondence between poem [left-hand page] and color print [right-hand page], each of Stead’s fluid, misty images contains a circle, and three [of five] prints contain either, what appear to be, branches or a trunk of trees. The circle symbolizes Mother Earth or sacred space and is reminiscent of the Hindu/Buddhist/Jainist, Mandala, in which a circle appears within a square with a center point—the “boundaries” inherent to circle-symbolism. Related to these associations between poems and prints, trees symbolize, like water, union or physical and spiritual nourishment. Of course, water can be soothing and nourishing, as well as, dangerous, highlighting the present pamphlet’s complex and rich themes of life, death, and time [and memory?] that are replete with what the poetry critic, Helen Vendler, has called, “interpretive power” [see, especially, the poems, “private battlefields / personal interpretations” and “not  crossing  i  say”].

I would be remiss not to mention water as an example of the monetization of poetry—a short work of art sold for 100 pounds sterling. While this initiative is not a novel one, it is not practiced on a wide scale, and it may be time for poets to discuss methods for making their work financially sustainable. By way of e-mail, I asked Woolley about plans for a marketing strategy for the expensive, new collection. He responded that, probably, the pamphlet will be sold at Stead’s art exhibitions and in galleries. The poet noted, with surprise, that one of his Facebook followers has expressed an interest in purchasing a copy of water and that, at a later date, the artists “might bring out copies at a lower price…after the ten are sold.” Another idea floated by the poet, based on Bob Dylan’s lithograph prints, “The Drawn Blank Series,” would be to produce a “series of the artwork and poem combined.” In 2018, I wrote a proposal* suggesting that poets market their work, in association with a visual artist, according to the same criteria employed by visual and other artists [e.g., “performance artists”] who contract with galleries. The intent would be, in part, to enhance poets’ income from their art, to broaden the influence and impact of poetry, as well as, to increase the range of artforms represented by a given gallery.

Clearly, no poet would be obligated to participate in such a marketing strategy. However, if the tactics were even marginally successful, advantages (e.g., stream of income, incentive for poetry journals to pay poets, increased status of Poetry among the Arts and in public) should obtain to poets and galleries alike. The Woolley-Stead model and related concepts might be discussed at literary retreats, conferences, M.F.A. departments, etc. Whatever devolves from initiatives like water, the pamphlet represents a psychological and spiritual whole that many of us hope to achieve across our lifetimes. Though not a religious text in any manner, Woolley and Stead have created a chapbook for the spirit, in addition to, a work of intellect, sensation, and emotion—Art, in the most fundamental sense, worthy of being part of a rare book collection. water will be well-received by all readers of hybrid texts and avant-garde projects.

*available via e-mail request: foucault03@gmail.com

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Clara B. Jones is a Knowledge Worker practicing in Silver Spring, MD, USA. Among other works, she is author of the collection, Poems for Rachel Dolezal (GaussPDF, 2019).