{"id":11238,"date":"2020-04-07T14:56:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=11238"},"modified":"2020-04-07T15:00:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T14:00:04","slug":"david-cooke-staring-at-a-hoopoe-reviewed-by-ken-evans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=11238","title":{"rendered":"David Cooke | <em><strong>Staring at a Hoopoe<\/em><\/strong> | reviewed by Ken Evans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>David Cooke | <em>Staring at a Hoopoe<\/em> | Dempsey &#038; Windle Publishing: \u00a310<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.postimg.cc\/SNQfMx6B\/9781913329082.jpg\" width=\"220\" align=\"left\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a confident poetry practitioner who opens a collection with a villanelle. The challenging form divides opinion in contemporary poetry, of course, with some saying the last word was had long ago by Thomas and Bishop (with perhaps, an almost grudging acceptance of Derek Mahon\u2019s \u2018Antarctica\u2019.) <\/p>\n<p>But there is a magisterial (he is an ex-Head of Modern Languages in a comprehensive), and stately dignity to Cooke\u2019s poetry that justifies the high-wire act of starting with one. \u2018Feeling the Fear\u2019 takes the sloganistic, car-sticker maxim of \u2018feel the fear and do it anyway\u2019 for its repeat refrain and pulls it off with gusto. The contrast between its\u2019 epithetic vernacular and the more self-consciously poetic \u2013 indeed, in this exemplar, almost Shakespearean register &#8211; in the poem where, \u2018Lacking the confidence others display,\/you sense darkness creeping beyond what seems\/to be. Feel the fear and do it anyway,\u2019 works well in contrasting the one with the other.<\/p>\n<p>This opener is a philosophical poem which reflects the <em>Staring at a Hoopoe<\/em> titular poem. A hoopoe is, at best, an ambiguous bird in myth: as Cooke\u2019s poem says, a \u2018harbinger of spring\/or a bird whose piping\/mnemonic call\/is like a final summons.\u2019 In Persia, a symbol of virtue; in Northern Europe, regarded as \u2018thieves\u2019 or even heralding death. And differently again, regarded as sacred by the ancient Egyptians. So the hoopoe becomes an interesting prism in which we see that which we want to see, relative to, and determined by, our predispositions of culture, outlook, \u2018mind-set\u2019. Cooke exploits these ambivalences with ingenuity in a poem where an old man and a hoopoe are engaged in something of a \u2018who blinks first\u2019 eye-gazing contest.<\/p>\n<p>However, philosophical query is not the first impulse of these sure-footed, adroit poems. Perception and empiricism dominate in closely-observed poems like \u2018Swallow\u2019, where the diver from a pool board, \u2018absorbing\/its spring.\/Heel raised,\/arms outstretched,\/ she senses\/that this\/is all that\/she can know\/of flight\u2026.her back arched\/taut as a bow,\/she breasts\/the air,\/craving its pull \u2013.\u2018  These tight, short lines express the edge-of-board, miniscule muscle movements of the simultaneously propulsive and swallow-dive action of the descent through air, enacted before us, beautifully.<\/p>\n<p>At the core of this collection are ten poems about the life of Gertrude Bell, the archaeologist, linguist and cartographer, credited with drawing-up many of the boundaries of Middle East countries such as Iraq and supporting their growing toward \u2018nationhood\u2019. These modern resonances were explored by the RSC in Khalil\u2019s play, \u2018A Museum in Baghdad\u2019, which I saw. This helped my sense of historical background, but in the poems alone perhaps points-up the challenge of how much narrative and context are, at once, both needed and useful, but also impinge on the poetic thrust. The explanatory values in prosodic \u2018scene-setting\u2019 may seem intrusive harnessed to a poetic cause for some, and a readers\u2019 willingness to \u2018go with it\u2019 may depend on their interest in the subject-matter, rather than the persuasive strengths of the poetic register.  That said, Cooke has made me want to know and understand more about an extraordinary character who was so out, and ahead, of her own time. A thoughtful, stimulating and assured collection. <\/p>\n<p><strong>By Ken Evans<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Cooke | Staring at a Hoopoe | Dempsey &#038; Windle Publishing: \u00a310 It\u2019s a confident poetry practitioner who opens a collection with a villanelle. The challenging form divides opinion in contemporary poetry, of course, with some saying the last word was had long ago by Thomas and Bishop (with perhaps, an almost grudging acceptance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[13,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>David Cooke | Staring at a Hoopoe | reviewed by Ken Evans - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=11238\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David Cooke | Staring at a Hoopoe | reviewed by Ken Evans - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Cooke | Staring at a Hoopoe | Dempsey &#038; Windle Publishing: \u00a310 It\u2019s a confident poetry practitioner who opens a collection with a villanelle. 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