Poetry review: A Darker Way

Eric Ngalle Charles

Reading A Darker Way by Grahame Davies is like gazing at a riot of flowers in a garden, a treasure trove of colourful discoveries, an archway into the magical world of the short form.

The poems reveal themselves in the simplicity of a child kicking and smiling in their sleep.

As the pages turn, you are transported through portals into different worlds from those of the Traveller. “Yes, we were nervous when they first came, at first, I won’t deny it.’’

And we move to Happy Larry’s Funeral, whom everyone knew, but no one dared to ask his name.

Siblings

We gather with the thin line of mourners to say farewell, and may the winds guide Larry. “So sad, she says. We were the only mourners that he had. She’s English. New to here, but not, I guess, to sorrow, which makes siblings of us all.’’

When a tree falls in the forest, does it indeed make a sound? But sorrow, Grahame Davies says, makes siblings of us all. It does not matter who you are or whence you hail from.

We all have those solitary moments and burdens, carrying them on our shoulders like crosses and lumbering around. Tears cascaded down my face as I read A Darker Way.

The voice is so intense that the reader suddenly grieves for Happy Larry and contemplates their mortality. Who would attend my funeral? Will I die alone and allow the elements of biology to take effect? Like a weaver bird plaiting a nest, the lines in this poem are like tiny twigs and feathers floating in the wind.

The grave and the coffin become “a place for Harry to be happy in.’’ A sobering mode when we leave the familiar landscape, places we call home, and return after many years, what has changed? Have we changed?

However, the author tells us that Larry is like many who never stray too far from their birthplace.

I got carried away by the wave after wave, bashing me back and forth in this collection of poems.

Beginning

Let me take you to the beginning with the last lines of the second poem, “Farewell to Poetry,’’ on page eight. “I find this better: silence after sound, and solitude after society, simply to walk out on the empty field, feeling the wind across the open land, expecting nothing from the empty sky.’’

A piece of advice from a sage to writers. Sometimes, it suffices to take time out, to stare at the blank page, and enjoy the silence. Listen to croaking frogs, trickling rivers, waterfalls streaming to the sound of the djembe drum, birds and crickets chirping, owls hooting.

Let nature speak, and you listen. This, for me, is not a farewell to poetry but a clear case of au revoir. Soak in a bathtub of mango leaves and lemongrass to recharge yourself. It is always good to take time out.

In the poem “Familiar’’ on page twenty, we enjoy reciprocated love and rekindling, and though I have known her for forty years, I will walk behind and follow her for another forty. “A county athlete, I ran after her. Heads turned. She didn’t care, cornering the terrain like a hare.’’

We then leap forward to the poem “Escape.’’ Familiar and Escape, with their themes of longing and the road not taken, reminded me of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken’’ and William Butler Yeats’s “The Lake Isle of Innisfree’’ the writer dreams of just going, much like the themes of these classic poems.

“No one to miss me. No one to ask why. That would be freedom. Never to be known, and so, never forgotten, never called.’’

Compelling

A Darker Way is a compelling read for lovers of the short form, a collection of sixty-six poems that take you on an emotional journey. Divided into five sections, each poem is a unique experience, from the scars we carry to the visitors who leave an indelible mark, from the secrets we keep to the collective grief of a mining disaster and a pandemic.

As you delve into this collection, you will be on an emotional rollercoaster, experiencing solace, solitude, contemplations, love, and grief; each poem will carry you through various feelings.

Since Grahame Davies’ last poetry collection was in 2012, A Darker Way has been hibernating for twelve years. And I will say this: it has been worth the wait. Extra Guinea fowl feathers on your cap, Grahame Davies.