Review
Has the ferocity, indignation and bite of the old flytings, even the mad word-hoard of the Admirable Urquhart of Cromarty; a Scots Martial, but with the unabashed tenderness and exactitude of John Clare describing water lilies or Gerhard in his Herbal, on the subject of the Wild Chervil. A mentor, a bristling master, and a total original. (August Kleinzahler )
Product Description
Scales Dog provides a selection of Hutchison’s work from Deep-Tap Tree (1978) to his most recent collection Carbon Atom (2006). The earliest poem “Mr Scales Walks His Dog” was written in Canada in 1970, following the poet’s arrival there from Scotland in 1966. At the time Michael Ondaatje said :”I love that poem” – and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, hearing the piece at a public reading in British Columbia, announced as soon as he came to the mike: “I dug that dog!”
Deep-Tap Tree was written during the seventies while Hutchison was living and working on Vancouver Island. Of that first book, the distinguished critic Richard Ellmann wrote: “Mr Hutchison is his own man, individual in temperament, pungent and accurate in expression. His work is compounded of wit and mystery, and delights his readers even as it teases them into self-recognition”.
Ellmann’s comments suggest that the appeal of Hutchison’s poems is both direct and indirect: being not only satirical and intelligent but also mysterious and moving. Another American reviewer found that variety a cause for celebration: “In a time of too much plain and too often poverty-stricken verse, Hutchison’s poetry looks and sounds bravely alive, colourful and crafted”. Underlining this positive reception across the Atlantic, the poet Robert Creeley said: “Sandy Hutchison’s poems read brightly, with a fine economy and precision. There is humor and warmth, an ear for clear edges of sound, and a pace that can hold all together”.
These responses were echoed in the UK when The Moon Calf and the pamphlets Epitaph for a Butcher and Sparks in the Dark were published after Hutchison’s return to Scotland in 1984. Gavin Ewart found the work: “Sharp, dark, funny – and with more vigour than almost all those usually singled out for praise.” Writing in Lines Review the poet George Bruce declared: “There is no questioning [his] verve, inventiveness and versifying skills. There’s been nothing quite like this since Sidney Goodsir Smith’s Under the Eildon Tree. Hutchison’s poems … are in the same witty, brio tradition”.
Singling out “An Ounce of Wit to a Pound of Clergy” – which is the opening poem in the collection Carbon Atom, and was published as a pamphlet by Gael Turnbull – Ian Hamilton Finlay said: “The Hutchison piece is fascinating to me … really good, energetic, knotty, interesting”. Gael Turnbull added his own praise when invited to comment on on early draft of Scales Dog by writing: “There are a dozen or so poems in the collection which register for me as having a totally unique quality, a momentum and richness, an energy and an edge, quite unlike anything I know written by anyone else”.
Recently, Hutchison’s work has sparked a response from a broader audience, and he is recognised by contemporary writers as a poet whose work has cut its own channels gradually, and is steadily gaining in reputation.
Scales Dog is a book which ranges widely with invention and delight. It is distinctively Scottish in some respects – but the appeal is international. It has depth and humour to carry its readers all the way through.
Deep-Tap Tree was written during the seventies while Hutchison was living and working on Vancouver Island. Of that first book, the distinguished critic Richard Ellmann wrote: “Mr Hutchison is his own man, individual in temperament, pungent and accurate in expression. His work is compounded of wit and mystery, and delights his readers even as it teases them into self-recognition”.
Ellmann’s comments suggest that the appeal of Hutchison’s poems is both direct and indirect: being not only satirical and intelligent but also mysterious and moving. Another American reviewer found that variety a cause for celebration: “In a time of too much plain and too often poverty-stricken verse, Hutchison’s poetry looks and sounds bravely alive, colourful and crafted”. Underlining this positive reception across the Atlantic, the poet Robert Creeley said: “Sandy Hutchison’s poems read brightly, with a fine economy and precision. There is humor and warmth, an ear for clear edges of sound, and a pace that can hold all together”.
These responses were echoed in the UK when The Moon Calf and the pamphlets Epitaph for a Butcher and Sparks in the Dark were published after Hutchison’s return to Scotland in 1984. Gavin Ewart found the work: “Sharp, dark, funny – and with more vigour than almost all those usually singled out for praise.” Writing in Lines Review the poet George Bruce declared: “There is no questioning [his] verve, inventiveness and versifying skills. There’s been nothing quite like this since Sidney Goodsir Smith’s Under the Eildon Tree. Hutchison’s poems … are in the same witty, brio tradition”.
Singling out “An Ounce of Wit to a Pound of Clergy” – which is the opening poem in the collection Carbon Atom, and was published as a pamphlet by Gael Turnbull – Ian Hamilton Finlay said: “The Hutchison piece is fascinating to me … really good, energetic, knotty, interesting”. Gael Turnbull added his own praise when invited to comment on on early draft of Scales Dog by writing: “There are a dozen or so poems in the collection which register for me as having a totally unique quality, a momentum and richness, an energy and an edge, quite unlike anything I know written by anyone else”.
Recently, Hutchison’s work has sparked a response from a broader audience, and he is recognised by contemporary writers as a poet whose work has cut its own channels gradually, and is steadily gaining in reputation.
Scales Dog is a book which ranges widely with invention and delight. It is distinctively Scottish in some respects – but the appeal is international. It has depth and humour to carry its readers all the way through.
About the Author
Alexander Hutchison was born and brought up in Buckie, a fishing town on the north-east coast of Scotland. He has worked on and off in universities, including 18 years in Canada and the USA, though he gave up being a literary academic some time ago. As a poet (and occasional translator) he writes in Scots and English. Currently he lives in Glasgow. Based on recent experience he has decided that while wishful thinking doesn't do it, a proper determination can make the cosmos perk up and take a bit of notice. "Mr Scales Walks His Dog," an underground perennial, was composed in the early seventies and drew praise from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael Ondaatje.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Incantation
— beginning with a couplet from Carmina Gadelica
and with grace notes from the same source.
I have a charm for the bruising
a charm for the blackening
a charm for cheats and impostors.
I summon from the cold clear air
from the bare branches of the trees
from worms coiling under the ground —
charm against cruel intent
charm for neglect
charm against wicked indifference:
may it lie on the white backs of the breakers of the sea
may it lie on the furthest reaches of the wind.
A salve for those who would grudge against the poor
a salve for those who would harry the innocent
a salve for those who would murder children:
may it lie in the stoniest stretches of the hills
may it lie in the darkest shelving along the shore.
A salve for those that would cram
whatever life they have with possession —
for the rage of owning without entitlement
for the desperate murderous possession of things:
may it lie on the cloud-banks that range across the sky
may it lie on the face of Rannoch Moor in its remoteness.
A charm against mystification by doctors
a charm against deception by the self-appointed
a charm against horrific insistence:
from the breeze that stirs the last of the yellowing leaves
from the slanting of the sun as it falls through the window.
a salve against grasping
a salve against preaching
a salve against promises exacted by threat.
Grace of form
grace of voice
grace of virtue
grace of sea
grace of land and air
grace of music
grace of dancing.
A salve against the uselessness of envy
a salve against denial of our own best nature
a salve against bitter enmity and silence.
Grace of beauty
grace of spirit
grace of laughter
grace of the fullness of life itself.
A salve to bind us
a salve to strengthen heart and happiness:
may it lie in the star-blanket there to spread over us
may it lie in the first light at the waking of day.
— beginning with a couplet from Carmina Gadelica
and with grace notes from the same source.
I have a charm for the bruising
a charm for the blackening
a charm for cheats and impostors.
I summon from the cold clear air
from the bare branches of the trees
from worms coiling under the ground —
charm against cruel intent
charm for neglect
charm against wicked indifference:
may it lie on the white backs of the breakers of the sea
may it lie on the furthest reaches of the wind.
A salve for those who would grudge against the poor
a salve for those who would harry the innocent
a salve for those who would murder children:
may it lie in the stoniest stretches of the hills
may it lie in the darkest shelving along the shore.
A salve for those that would cram
whatever life they have with possession —
for the rage of owning without entitlement
for the desperate murderous possession of things:
may it lie on the cloud-banks that range across the sky
may it lie on the face of Rannoch Moor in its remoteness.
A charm against mystification by doctors
a charm against deception by the self-appointed
a charm against horrific insistence:
from the breeze that stirs the last of the yellowing leaves
from the slanting of the sun as it falls through the window.
a salve against grasping
a salve against preaching
a salve against promises exacted by threat.
Grace of form
grace of voice
grace of virtue
grace of sea
grace of land and air
grace of music
grace of dancing.
A salve against the uselessness of envy
a salve against denial of our own best nature
a salve against bitter enmity and silence.
Grace of beauty
grace of spirit
grace of laughter
grace of the fullness of life itself.
A salve to bind us
a salve to strengthen heart and happiness:
may it lie in the star-blanket there to spread over us
may it lie in the first light at the waking of day.
