You’ve Got to Get in to Get Out
The world will impinge into your need
for silence, into your prayers. In the hardest seconds
of your life, your neighbours will be drunk,
booming hip-hop through thin inconvenient walls.At the lighting of your candles, in the moment
you need to focus — the apex of your flame,
the voice of the Holy Spirit, someone
will be vacuuming, talking, ringing up change,
a bin wagon bleeping as it reverses, builders
swearing into the distance you put by pulling into
yourself. It sounds like they are calling your name.
I’ve been reading John Siddique’s astonishing collection, Recital, and it’s got me thinking. What does it mean to be British? Over the coming months, our politicians (or so called) will try to convince us of their own idealised visions of national identity. But John Siddique is not a politician. He is a poet, and a good one.
Siddique’s poems grow from British soil. Whether set in rural northern England, or the urban centre of London, they comment on those intricate, mundane details that make Britain what it is.
Academic praise in the U.S has regarded Recital as a national text for Britain. Insights have also been noted closer to home. Dr. Claire Chambers, senior lecturer in Postcolonial Literature at Leeds Metropolitan University has this to say about Siddique’s sequence ‘Inside’:
‘Inside’ is the most important and sensitive poetic response to the 2005 London bombings to have been produced so far. These poems offer a nuanced, even-handed response to 7/7.
Siddique takes a brave and balanced look at the terrible events of 7 July 2005. ‘There is No More Time’ describes the ordinary commuters ‘looking forward /to a cup of tea, or just getting there’, who are decimated in the bomb that explodes at 9.47 am on the Tavistock Square bus, after which ‘time ceases to exist.’
Unerringly humane and unexpectedly tender, Recital is already benefiting from wide word-of-mouth recommendation, and deserves to become a key text on poetry syllabi for this nascent millennium.
John Siddique has been taking his collection out into the real world. A visit to Runshaw Sixth Form College prompted an extra hour to be added to the schedule, as students were so eager to ask him questions. Feedback from the event was extremely good:
Image courtesy of Runshaw College
‘It was absolutely excellent. John was great and he really enthused and inspired the students.’
‘My class loved the workshop with John. It was brilliant for them to speak to a ‘real’ writer and see that it could actually be a job if they decided.’
It’s this approach that allows Recital to be read by the people who inspired it. It’s a collection about real people, living in real Britain. Events may leave a lasting scar on our history, but it’s the individual that makes Britain what it is.
I have greatly enjoyed reading John’s collection. It is certainly one of my favourites from the past year. And well done, John, for taking it on the road as you have and broadening your audience.
An interesting post. And always an interesting question “what does it mean to be British”. As identity is such an individual thing I expect that it has as many answers and permutations as the question “what does it mean to be human”. The only difference being is that “Britishness” or any nationality is a purely human construction.
Politically, with increased devolution, identity is a more important subject than ever. However it is one of those tricky ones with multiple definitions and no real answer. Therefore I think poetry is perfectly places to carry this discussion forward. I look forward to reading Siddique’s work on it.
Mairi