The May Figures

Figures of history and legend, contemporary figures, the poet’s friends and neighbours, and some goddesses rub shoulders in these poems, which begin with the formation of continents and continue into the present. Many characters speak for themselves, more are spoken about, and there are verse letters to friends. A big sequence starts in the village of Holme in West Yorkshire, comes back often to Jacqueline who ‘came inland’, visits the Stone Age, Europe, Asia, China and Massachusetts, and ends among the may trees of Holme. ‘A poem is a search for values’, and these poems look for ‘mays’ and certainties, thoughtful and moving. The style is allusive, the forms are various, there are puns, assonance, repetition and a profusion of half-rhymes too clever by half. These poems look outward, and reassert the music of poetry. This is Chris Preddle’s third collection.