John Siddique

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Biographical note:  John Siddique was born in 1964 and grew up in a house with no books; his discovery of his local library when young began his life long love affair with what words mean and how they sit together. He has published three previous collections of poetry, one of which is for children, and was shortlisted for the CLPE poetry award. He has also co-authored a collection of short stories, and written a short play for BBC Radio 3. He teaches poetry workshops both in UK and Abroad, and has worked with The Arvon Foundation, The Poetry Society, The Poetry School and the British Council. He has been a visiting lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan and Vienna Universities. He is well known for his captivating readings, and his ability to communicate with all types of audiences. He has a website at www.johnsiddique.co.uk

BIC Basic

EAN13:  9781844717231
ISBN:  9781844717231
Author:  John Siddique
Title:  Recital
Series:  Salt Modern Poets
Product class:  BB
Language:  eng
Audience:  General/trade
BIC subject category:  CTCH1
Publisher:  Salt Publishing
Pub date:  06-May-09
Extent:  80pp
Height:  216 mm
Width:  140 mm
Thickness:  5 mm
Weight:  120 gms
Supplier:   Gardners Books
Supplier:   Ingram Book Group
Supplier:   Inbooks (James Bennett)
Availability:  IP
Price:  GBP 8.99
Price:  USD 14.95
Rights:  World

Main description:  John Siddique is a poet who wants you to read his work, his writing isn’t a puzzle you have to figure out. Gathered in these pages is the work of an artist who believes in stories — our stories.

From the domestic realities of everyday life to a world distraught with crises and confrontation Recital looks at our lives over the space of a year. Drawing on inspiration from Grave’s ‘White Goddess,’ Siddique’s book uses the lunar cycle to tap into the intimate relations of the modern soul; our doubts, hesitations and need for meaning.

Glimpses of inspiration from Larkin, Cummings and Neruda inform the poetry here, but Siddique’s own voice takes those ways of looking at the world and sets out stories of who we are right now in the 21st century.

In a time when so many consider poetry to be of little relevance, here is a writer and a book that has never been more relevant to the questions of today and the people we are. Yet it is with a sensuous and loving eye that Siddique writes about secrets that we almost dare not think about. He reveals the quest for love and the spiritual meaning that underpins us.

Table of contents:
Recital: an almanac
Begin
You’ve Got to Get in to Get Out
Birch Moon
One New Year’s Eve
Facing You
If You Want to Find Me
The Other
Labyrinth
Rowan Moon
February Verses
Unintended Loyalty
Ash Moon
Recital
David
Red Line (He Loves Me)
Alder Moon
Elegy
Willow Moon
Silence
Migratory Patterns
Hawthorne Moon
Keeping On
Oak Moon
Trade
Inside
1 ‘It is no use shouting’
2 ‘There is no more time’
3 ‘This is what you were born for’
4 ‘Nobody knows why’
Holly Moon — Scalpsie Bay
Accumulations
Summer Cycle
1 The List
2 Waking in the night
3 Earth
4 Creation myth
5 Cold water
Hazel Moon
Without
Involution
Promises
Attersee
Vine Moon — Fire
Beachcombing
Standing There and Here
A Change
Ivy Moon
The Attic
My Father
Autumn Tree
Yew Moon
Bonfire Night
Filofax
Wintering Geraniums
Elder Moon
Annunciation of The Virgin
The 52nd Week of the Year
To Reading
Other People’s Children
Tree of the World
The All I See is Your Face
The Death of Death

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Excerpt from book:  

The Other

He crashed into my life, everything I don’t believe in,
took love away in a single action, so that even after years
it is fresh — the exact moment entwining my core.
It doesn’t matter if I’m doing business,
or in the arms of my new wife, he is always with me.

Since that day I have had to beat my own heart.
Each day I have to spend time finding a reason to live,
the simplest things are heavier than they used to be.
I would like nothing more than to see a space
where he used to walk, nothing more than to strike
him and anyone who is like him from these pages.

It would be the easiest thing to make a war,
I could take my fury, my hurt and my truth.
No right thinking person would disagree with me.
I and all the right thinking people will be wrong
as we imprint our versions of the same horrors
into other lives. Once I swore a vow to god,
before that dust filled day when I cursed god
right back in the face. My vow was that this world
would be better for my living in it.
Now that god is gone I still believe the words.
One day I will remake something holy
from the piles of words we have stored up in defence.

Peace will not happen from war. My hurt is not your hurt.
If I do not choose peace, the terrorist in my dreams is given life,
so I spell forgiveness, learn it is not the same as forgetting,
learn that it means I have to stay away from him.
When the anger rises I have to go away and be quiet
or weep, or squeeze my fists. He has left me with a task
that makes me sick to my bones every single moment.
It is all I can do, no one notices, and this is my war.

Unpublished endorsement:  John Siddique is an accomplished writer across several genres, but his fourth collection of poetry ‘Recital: an Almanac’ demonstrates his considerable range within this form has not lessened. Politically alert, he is also a gifted and adventurous love-poet bringing the Japanese art of bondage, Shibari, into Erato's northern court for surely the first time; an excellent nature poet, he writes equally well of childhood, friendship and loss. His work shows an international awareness enriched by an Islamic-Catholic heritage, which must account to some extent for the humour that sparkles through this marvellous book. Anyone interested in the fascinating cross-fertilisation of poetries now revitalising the literature of these islands must read it.

Ian Duhig

Unpublished endorsement:  On love, loss and hope, these poems are imbued with a beautiful, tender melancholia.

Bernardine Evaristo

Unpublished endorsement:  As John Siddique reminds us in his extraordinary new collection, life unfolds whether or not we choose to participate in the “future histories” being created at every moment. The poems in this book form a literary chronograph for survival, echoing life’s ticking clock while inviting us to stop and observe the moments before they pass. The book’s two related purposes are conveyed in its title. As a recital, these poems masterfully name and celebrate the glorious panorama of intimate yet communal subjects and objects that infuse experience with meaning—a classic role for poetry rendered utterly new in these pages. As an almanac, the poems meticulously catalogue relationships, events, natural phenomena and experiences into measured moments. In this irreplaceable collection, John Siddique creates a time-line for evaporating memories, observations and sensations, and reveals life’s potential to be a hidden gallery.

Lauri Ramey

Previous review quote:  John Siddique's poetry takes the reader on a journey, crossing the border country between love and loss, he charts his family's untold stories. Interested in exploring opposite worlds and seeming contradictions, his poetry is a brilliant balancing act. Sometimes steamy, often moving, The Prize is a bold, brave book with a big, open heart.

Jackie Kay

Previous review quote:  John Siddique's writing is playful and poignant. It explores the complexities of a fragmented world – of sex, family, loss and dream-life – with such clear-eyed, unsentimental candour that I go back to certain poems time and again for another immersion. He's not afraid of writing about love, its pain and rewards, its sudden, shocking forces and darkly funny epiphanies – and his poems demonstrate a generosity and humanity so often lacking in more brittle, defensive writers.

Catherine Smith

Previous review quote:  His knowledge and love of poetry shines through.

Rachel Feldberg

Previous review quote:  ohn Siddique is a powerful, arresting and provocative new poetic voice, on the page, and off it. He writes with a rare combination of directness, ease, and authority and transports his audience through a gallery of moods and registers in just as wide a range of forms. His work is visceral, sensuous, searing, playful, and deeply moving.

Gavin Wallace

Previous review quote:  John Siddique is one of Britain's most interesting and original poets. He probes the contradictory jumble of contemporary Britain revealing the daily heroism and bravery of the urban sprawl that he clearly knows well.

Elizabeth Rosa Horan