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Recital: An Almanac (Salt Modern Poets S.) [Paperback]

John Siddique
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Price: £8.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Book Description

6 May 2009 Salt Modern Poets S.
John Siddique is a poet who wants you to read his work, his writing isn’t a puzzle you have to figure out. Gathered in these pages is the work of an artist who believes in stories – our stories.

From the domestic realities of everyday life to a world distraught with crises and confrontation Recital looks at our lives over the space of a year. Drawing on inspiration from Grave’s ‘White Goddess,’ Siddique’s book uses the lunar cycle to tap into the intimate relations of the modern soul; our doubts, hesitations and need for meaning.

Glimpses of inspiration from Larkin, Cummings and Neruda inform the poetry here, but Siddique’s own voice takes those ways of looking at the world and sets out stories of who we are right now in the 21st century.

In a time when so many consider poetry to be of little relevance, here is a writer and a book that has never been more relevant to the questions of today and the people we are. Yet it is with a sensuous and loving eye that Siddique writes about secrets that we almost dare not think about. He reveals the quest for love and the spiritual meaning that underpins us.

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Recital: An Almanac (Salt Modern Poets S.) + Poems from a Northern Soul + Full Blood (Salt Modern Poets)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 80 pages
  • Publisher: Salt Publishing (6 May 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1844717232
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844717231
  • Product Dimensions: 14 x 0.5 x 21.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 805,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Review

ohn Siddique is a powerful, arresting and provocative new poetic voice, on the page, and off it. He writes with a rare combination of directness, ease, and authority and transports his audience through a gallery of moods and registers in just as wide a range of forms. His work is visceral, sensuous, searing, playful, and deeply moving.--Gavin Wallace

Review

John Siddique is an accomplished writer across several genres, but his fourth collection of poetry ‘Recital: an Almanac’ demonstrates his considerable range within this form has not lessened. Politically alert, he is also a gifted and adventurous love-poet bringing the Japanese art of bondage, Shibari, into Erato's northern court for surely the first time; an excellent nature poet, he writes equally well of childhood, friendship and loss. His work shows an international awareness enriched by an Islamic-Catholic heritage, which must account to some extent for the humour that sparkles through this marvellous book. Anyone interested in the fascinating cross-fertilisation of poetries now revitalising the literature of these islands must read it. (Ian Duhig )

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Recital: An Almanac by John Siddique 19 Jun 2009
Format:Paperback
Siddique's poems were written over the space of one year, and using the lunar cycle as a central theme he explores love, hope, childhood, absence of a parent, nature, as well as bombings and shootings in London. He writes about each subject with the same honest, well-crafted verse that tells it like it is. Every word on the page counts, is carefully considered, weighed up and deliberated over before being allowed to stay. Some pieces are autobiographical, others looking out at the world and all its' goings on - from nature writ large to the way our police force deals with suspected terrorists. Yet they are all interconnected, as we are.
There is a humbleness here; and acceptance that some things we simply cannot change - they are bigger than us. Like the wind, the sea, or the people we choose to love: `We cannot tame the wind or the sea. Cannot/make them roll or blow our way. Taming ourselves/comes first, then we may laugh at them, scream at them.' - Facing You. Like nature's cycles, the book itself is a cycle, beginning with a beginning and ending with a poem entitled 'The Death of Death'. This acknowledges art's limits to completely heal us, and this is necessary. 'This is what I ask of each book, / it is why each writer fails. We can but try.'
Siddique looks inwards at his own happiness, suffering, confusion, complacency, but also out at what is going on in the world and links the two. His love for people is apparent, and his work is contemporary yet has a timeless quality to it.
The book is about us - humanity - at its best and worst. He is reaching out, he wants to connect us with what goes beyond the mundane, the ordinary, he wants us to question what is going on in our world today, and document some of its traumas. This documenting is vital.
An intelligent, brave, witty writer, Siddique presents each poem as a gift to us all and by asking questions answers some, and invites the reader to think of more. The book is one that will stay with you for some time, and one that you will want to return to again and again.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars All round good poetry 5 Dec 2009
Format:Paperback
Siddique's poetry is fresh and easily accessible. Whilst being highly personal it also highly relevent, not only to wider contemporary issues such as the london bombings but also on a very human level - Siddique makes observations on life that we all acknowledge on a subconcious level, but often fail to notice. Like some of the best comedians, it is these subtle observations that allow the reader to identify with Siddique's work. I particularly enjoyed the poem "Bonfire" which creates a truthful and vivid portrayal of all 13 year old girls whilst giving a melancholic glimpse of the death of Lindsay Rimer. Each poem is carefully selected and the book is structed in a very deliberate and thoughtful way. Each poem whilst being a piece in its own right, belongs in the book and has its only particular place and meaning because of this. The book is marvellous and I would further recommend the audiobook version of Recital as the poems come to life when read out loud, Siddique being well known for his ability to capture an audience with his readings.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Life-affirming poetry 3 Jun 2009
By AntonB
Format:Paperback
Siddique's poetry is clear, concise and has an immediacy that will appeal to many. Recital: an almanac is a thoughtful and often thought-provoking collection, intelligent, clear, inquiring, humorous, some will say inspirational and - dare I say it? - 'life-affirming' (there, I said it!). It's a work that demands to be read as a whole - please don't take my word for it, go out and buy it.
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