The Guardian's Poem of the Week, 8th November 2010
The Black Guitar
Clearing out ten years from a wardrobe
I opened its lid and saw Joe
written twice in its dust, in a child's hand,
then a squiggled seagull or two.
Joe, Joe
a man's tears are worth nothing,
but a child's name in the dust, or in the sand
of a darkening beach, that's a life's work.
I touched two strings, to hear how much
two lives can slip out of tune
then I left it,
brought down the night on it, for fear, Joe
of hearing your unbroken voice, or the sea
if I played it.
Here is a book of ghosts, from the mysterious traveller in the title
poem who, mistaken for another man, starts to crave his new alter ego,
to the first person of 'Between Two Bridges', Henry's long poem on
Newport, who follows his teenage ghost across the city for a night:
He pulls away. The wind puts its lips to an arcade.
A seagull on a barber's pole waits to open its blades.
How the living haunt themselves is the concern of Ingrid's Husband,
and the author discovers his spirits through an imagery of absences: a
child's signature in the dust of an old guitar; the stone plinth where a
café once stood; a white balloon drifting down a shopping arcade; a
chateau, still furnished with the belongings of its vanished owner...
Love continues to underscore the commonplace in Paul Henry's fifth
collection and this lyric poet's distinctive voice continues to haunt
its readers.
"Ingrid's Husband showcases Henry's eye for striking imagery...
Ingrid's Husband succeeds as a powerful meditation on loss, and its
tentative, never fully realised, attempts at renewal are always
affecting... there's more than enough fine writing in this volume to
reward sustained attention."
New Welsh Review
"Henry's poems work through images deftly juxtaposed; they evoke a world
of fleeting memories and echo the processes of intuitive thought... Paul
Henry can be mischievously perceptive of the danger lurking behind
appearances."
Poetry Salzburg
"Paul Henry's lyrical poems achieve perfect pitch, matching sound to
sense with, seemingly a minimum of effort. In Ingrid's Husband, his
fifth collection from Seren, musicality of line is evident
throughout."
Poetry Review
"With the purity of a sixteenth-century poet, Paul Henry lets fall his
beautiful lyrics like cloaks in the mud of every day. Effortless
epiphanies and images gradually break open, releasing a strange power, a
dark ocean of longing and loss. His poetry deepens our perception of the
world."
Hugo Williams
"A poet's poet, Paul Henry gets maximum effect from minimum language.
The ordinary becomes alive with possibility, comic, moving, magical,
compassionate. A sense of the music of words combines with an endlessly
inventive imagination."
U.A. Fanthorpe
"What I hate about this book is the fact that I didn't write it."
Sheenagh Pugh
Paul Henry was born in Aberystwyth in 1959. He currently lives in
Gwent with his wife and three sons. Originally a singer-songwriter, he
combines freelance writing with working as a Careers Adviser. In 1989 he
received an Eric Gregory Award.
