The Poignancy of Being: Review of 'Those People' by Paul Stephenson

Paul Stephenson’s book, ‘Those People’, is comprised of twenty-three poems revealing a fascination with language (‘Gare du Midi’, ‘Two Tannoys (A Noise A Noise)’ ), word-play and syntax, (‘Roget’, ‘Glace’, ‘As for candied fruit generally, / she can’t see the point, but then / nor can I, if I can be candid’), an acute ear (‘Wake Up And’, ‘Two Tannoys’), and an eye for the poignant in the humour of the everyday (‘Ashby-de-la-Zouch’ ‘the chiseled women wear smiles like snagged zips’), but also an eye for humour in the poignant (‘Arrangements’)

‘Angle End’, and ‘Round the Block’, each almost voyeuristic and concerned with an overview of a neighbourhood, are accessible poems which hold more than is initially apparent beneath the surface. Both poems made me want to write on a similar theme. The rhythm of ‘Round the Block’ had me almost reaching for my trainers ‘…anti-clockwise: / fourteen minutes on go-slow’, and I was left wondering about characters such as Mrs Bulgar, Mr Lamper, Grandad (from ‘Round the Block’), Dr Bilby, The Pope, and ‘The Heyworth-Harmers’ (from ‘Angle End’).

The poignancy of, ‘Professor Wright who cycled seven miles to work and / back each day, then one day only made it six miles.’ (‘Angle End’) and the ending of ‘Birthday Cards’, ‘I find the silliest, rudest, fattest one to send, / Doing my best to get hold of you.’ after its thought-provoking beginning, ‘ Today you’d be seventy if you hadn’t been / so overweight’, lingered.

The title poem with language such as stragglers, hardcore, eager beavers, party-goers, bang on, hover, dollar-hungry doppelgängers, and the wry comment that ‘Those People’, ‘…have it marked fluorescent for weeks in their diary / and make a mission of what to wear,’ is a wonderful example of Paul Stephenson’s acute observations, and he culminates in drawing the reader into the question, ‘…is there a name for them?’

I recommend ‘Those People’, a book to be savoured by reading with the same acute observation with which it was written.

Those People by Paul Stephenson,

30pp, £5, Smith / Doorstop Books, a member of Inpress, The Poetry Business, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield. www.inpressbooks.co.uk