A Dreaming is Andrew Martin’s fourth publication and follows in the footsteps of his debut collection Shoals of Starlings, which combined beautiful fractal imagery with powerful minimalist poems, ostensibly to do with birds but also suggesting strong psychological underpinnings. It was a masterly introduction to the work of an impressive contemporary poet/artist.
A Dreaming is a single long poem using wordplay, word-association, alliteration and rhythmic dexterity to keep the ball rolling but it’s also considered and reflective. Chance associations meet careful editing and some of the imagery here is simply astonishing. Take the following by way of example:
angels dream in black and white
pigeons dream of peacocks
kingfishers dream of clown fish
wearing crowns
starlings murmur in their sleep
as they dream of the choreography
dreamt up by storms
The last three lines here are mind-blowing!
This is a poem that build and builds and bears a lot of re-reading as the reader keeps finding new thoughts to ponder, be amazed by or simply overwhelmed by the imagery. It combines a melancholy underpinning with a joyful celebration of the world (the universe even) and everything in it and takes the idea of interconnectedness to new places:
the hadron collider
dreams of playing roulette
places everything on black
dark matter dreams it matters
to someone in particular
quantum physics only dreams
when you’re not watching
dictators dream of taking dictation
There is plenty of humour too, some of it of the laugh-out-loud variety, as in:
toilet rolls
dream of the dead sea scrolls dream
of swiss cream rolls
swiss cream rolls dream of rolly-pollies
rolly-pollies dream of rope
rope dreams of tapestries
Obviously the rhyme dictates the forward-flow here before swerving into the unpredictable ‘rope’ which takes us elsewhere yet again:
central heating dreams of convection currents
at the core of planets
fractal dreams of jigsaw puzzles
jigsaw puzzles dream of fitting in
As indicated above this is also a publication which combines words with images, in this case 14 landscape photographs which appear to have been digitally overlaid and which via this combination of construction are in tune with the writing processes involved in the production of the poem. Andrew Martin is a rare talent in being able to combine artforms in this manner as in many cases ‘illustrated poetry books’ appear to be just that and the disconnect between the forms is often a problem.
There is a further dimension in Martin’s current explorations in that a live performance of A Dreaming, which I was fortunate enough to have experienced recently (a world premiere in Plymouth!), included an ambient soundscape by composer/producer Mark Allin (aka Riigs) with a reading of the poem together with stills of the images which follow on and gradually fade into the next picture. This may indeed be one way forward in the evolution of the art form(s) and although not entirely novel this was an impressive occasion. It will be interesting to see where Martin’s creative juices take him next. His role as a publisher of new poetry from the Plymouth region with Shoals of Starlings Press is exemplary. Meanwhile you can enjoy A Dreaming on streaming platforms.
Steve Spence 5th June 2023
