Contemporary British Poetry by Blue Yates
Collected Poems Including Cleopatra in Coalville and Malfica
Sep 5, 2008
Blue Yates is a familiar face around the Midlands pubs and clubs scene, as a versatile jazz/classical guitarist. An accomplished composer of original music, it seems Blue also has a history steeped in poetry. Collected Poems groups together work from 1992 – 2008; an eclectic body which segues from the tobacco stained kitchen sink-esque drama of Cleopatra in Coalville to the epic, esoteric beauty of Malfica.
Extract – Cleopatra in Coalville (1992)
The atmosphere is dull and grey
And smells of someone's 'Craven A'
Extract – Malfica (2006)
In the dark and asphalt light
Descendent where we crawl,
As all my breathing friends will tell you,
A dark blue rises
Across the morning.
Blue's writing has a fragile quality and a sense of the strange and the beautiful. His poems reference mermaids and angels, alongside far more mundane, everyday landscapes. His writing is imbued with longing, and a vague hopelessness. A dark pessimism which draws readers into a Sylvia Plath style world of metaphors and mysteries.
Angels and Eden Sands
This collection of poetry is sub-divided into sections with evocative headings such as Angels and Eden Sands, where several related poems are grouped together. Poems with titles such as Giovanna's Dream and She Hangs upon the Moment. Titles that, by themselves, invoke a poetic landscape of surreal fantasy. Blue's poetry conveys an imperfectly sculpted romantic utopia. Fragments are swooning and full of possibilities, until the words transmogrify into cruel and unforgiving truths.
Extract – She Hangs upon the Moment (1996)
She hangs upon the moment of the
Movement of the handle of the door.
She waits inside the mirror
Just before she waits some more.
She stoops her form in disbelieving.
Feels her body warm through shroud and veil.
Extract – Malfica (2006)
She is beautiful in the black howl of wind that carves and starves me.
The memory of her that warmed my bones in its outlets,
An elegy that engulfs with slow melancholy
Like a forest communicates its inevitable sadness.
The poems have a definite social realist style, combined with a preternatural desire to drift into ethereal reveries. In many ways, reminiscent of lyrics for songs. It is quite a surprise to learn that Mr Yates has never set any of his poetry to music, despite his day job, as it were, in that arena. On the evidence of Collected Poems alone, perhaps he should.
Sources: Thanks to Rekoba Press for allowing the use of extracts from Blue Yates' poems.
Further reading: Check out this article about Blue's music, Blue Yates – Classical Guitarist
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