One of my favourite lyrical poets, Denis Riley, wrote this poem, wonderful in its use of quotation, its self-awareness, rigour and modesty:
A MISREMEMBERED LYRIC
A misremembered lyric: a soft catch of its song
whirrs in my throat. ‘Something’s gotta hold of my heart
tearing my’ soul and my conscience apart, long after
presence is clean gone and leaves unfurnished no
shadow. Rain lyrics. Yes, then the rain lyrics fall.
I don’t want absence to be this beautiful.
It shouldn’t be; in fact I know it wasn’t, while
‘everything that consoles is false’ is off the point –
you get no consolation anyway until your memory’s
dead; or something never had gotten hold of
your heart in the first place, and that’s the fear thought.
Do shrimps make good mothers? Yes they do.
There is no beauty out of loss; can’t do it –
and once the falling rain starts on the upturned
leaves, and I listen to the rhythm of unhappy pleasure
what I hear is bossy death telling me which way to
go, what I see is a pool with an eye in it. Still let
me know. Looking for a brand-new start. Oh and never
notice yourself ever. As in life you don’t.
Poet's Note: ‘A misremembered lyric’ uses a phrase from ‘Rhythm of the Rain’ written by Gummoe, sung by The Cascades, and from ‘Something’s Gotta Hold Of My Heart’ by R.Cook and R. Greenaway, recorded by Gene Pitney; the poem also quotes a line from Graham Greene’s version of a 1930s song.
At the heart of her poetry are both the recognition of the pull of the ecstatic and seductive (whether visual or aural), and also a precise responsiveness which is as fully self-aware as it can be. Her influential feminist text, Am I That Name?, which examines the verbal and social category of ‘women’ in history, helps establish this self-awareness as being a central component of a postmodernist intellectual and artistic project. It is out of the complex unstable surfaces of our lives and art that Denise Riley makes poetry.
PETER PHILPOTT
Read more of Denis Riley's poetry and more of Philpott's introduction at
poetryinternational.