Snowdrop Walk Skirting Inverleith pond I pass a pair of Canada geese, black with patches of white on throat and tail, protecting their young; and later in the Botanics (the geriatrics, myself among them, and the electric buggies out in force), see on a bench overlooking the snowdrop walk two figures in white headgear and skirts, under capacious black cloaks, clearly the vesture of some order. My tentative greeting receives a cheery ‘hello’, rich brown faces breaking into luminous smiles, though their eyes are invisible behind sunglasses. Later I meet them at the main gates admiring a silver lime, hands folded in their laps as if in meditation, revealing slivers of white. They move on, leaving me wondering whether my journey will lead to darkness or light; where they themselves are heading; and who will be soothed by their blessing?
Underwood, Stewart Conn’s fourth pamphlet of poems from Mariscat, delves further into the poet’s central concerns: the natural world, family, love, and the ephemeral nature of life. "With life restricted to a view through a window, Conn’s poems proffer momentary joy. The cheerful chaos of doves crash-landing into a cherry tree. A symphony played full blast over empty gardens. Everyday objects – an ancient typewriter, a blue-fly, a doll – take on new significance. ‘Underwood’, the vale of tears near Hell where Dante’s Virgil walked, is also the typing machine Conn composed his first play on. Its keys are damaged but they still offer ‘vital clues’ for lively, entertaining work still to be done… —David Manderson "These poems have such warmth and lightness, and yet such syntactic control …they contain all the creatures of the air – birds, ghosts, angels… even music floating on the breeze."
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