Reviewed by Sultana Raza
Identified Flying Objects
by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
Shoestring Press
Paperback, 76 pages, March 2024, ISBN-13: 978-1915553478
While one wouldn’t associate the terms, London Olympics, Google Maps, fiscal liability, or business plan with the prophet Ezekiel, Michael has come up with an intriguing set of poems about these subjects and many more in his latest collection Identified Flying Objects, published by Shoestring Press in 2024.
Being a mathematician, his poems seem to be Venn diagrams of people (family, migrants, Babylonians), places ((the fictional) Cagliostro Street, Yorkshire, Hackney in London, and Venice) and cultural icons of modern life (Joni Mitchell, JD Carr), or historical events (such as Derby Day, or the Seige of Sidney Street, involving Peter Pjatkov) underpinned with quotations by the biblical prophet Ezekiel.
The poet’s experience of physiotherapy turns into two poems, which gave him a different perspective of navigating everyday life. This is an example from Physiotherapy Part 1 (Theory):
Seen from a window, halfway up the hillside, /round hedges cushioning the valley’s vee/ resemble parallel upholstered bars.
They support stray thoughts of damaged limbs/ re-learning joined-up steps between soft lines –/ like spelling out a sentence with blunt crayon.
While they can be termed as confessional, there’re no calculated calls for pity or sympathy in them, (unlike quite a few contemporary poems). Rather, most poems look at the broader socio-historic picture and compute personal reflections with a sense of objectivity where possible. In The Fitting Room combines ethical concerns, with musings on geometrical shapes, and their translations into our social norms that oblige us to fit into boxes or to move in certain ways:
You wonder now what analogue of magnetism/ moves your moral compass. Being right or wrong / might be about alignment with some field of force/ whose source (big S or small) is far away.
According to Michael, it took him nearly twelve years to compile these poems into a cohesive whole which resulted in this book.
The poems cover a vast range of subjects. However, since most of their topics can be matched with quotes by Ezekiel, it’s easy to ask the question, if there’s anything new under the sun? Nevertheless, the unique insights and angles with which he treats them make for an interesting read. The poems demand time to be perused and understood, especially when it comes to cultural references which the poet picks on, whilst strolling through the streets of London.
Urban Concealment sums up any city’s past and present, (especially that of London) quite well:
The city is reticent about its past./ The not-so-well-remembered layers:/ fallen walls, worn floors,/ smashed grave- and paving-stones,/ stay folded like a gambler’s cards – /private even as the lifelines/ on the gambler’s hand.
Street Theatre is a commentary not just on money men, but also the precariousness of street actors on the outer fringes of the aristic world:
Black axioms are hidden in the pockets of dark suits/ on money men who must step round him. As they do, far more of them/ ignore him than will meet his eyes/ or scan his dumb-show doomsday tokens.
For example, while at face value Family Occasion may seem to be a simple enough poem, it’s a reflection not only on changing social mores, family configurations, but also on the economy of modern Britain.
Lesser known or forgotten historical details of London areas are alluded to in these poems, such as Derby Day. Put out that Light is not just about the commands of Air Raid Wardens during the WWII, but while touching lightly on astronomy, it could raise awareness about light pollution, a concept that hasn’t been discussed enough in the mainstream media. Though Speak Wealth is a longish poem, it’s formula for success includes comments on the financial sector, elitism, and a reference to Michele Lalonde’s poem about the dominance of the English language in Quebec. Furthermore, though he mentions fairy lights, the scientist in Michael can’t resist adding the words dynamos, armatures, and cables in the next few lines.
Whitewash could be obliquely related to an individual or to the general socio-political scenario, or manipulations in the economy of a state by the powers that be:
The whitewash would be bad enough/ but the gap is worse – it is/ a forecast of complete collapse/
and puts an end to all pretending/ whiter whitewash might yet work.
Image Consultant could apply to the socio-political scene, the financial sector, or even to celebrity culture:
He understands both conjurers and cardsharps, knows the showman and the charlatan/ take pride in skilful misdirection./ But tricksters who succeed in politics/ believe they can dispense with sleight of hand and telegraph what’s coming next./ When they reveal the card they’ve crudely palmed a compère madly calls for loud applause./ The doltish crowd is eager to oblige.
Michael deftly combines the Goldilocks zone with Ursa Major, along with Klingons and astronomy in Is Anybody There? which is also reminiscent of the famous first line from Walter de la Mare’s poem, The Listeners: ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,/ Knocking on the moonlit door;’ While this may have been unintentional on the poet’s part, it reveals his extensive knowledge of poetry.
I,William Blake is a skilful commentary on the financial hardships experienced by the Romantic, London based poet William Blake, and the penury depicted in Ken Loach’s 2016 film, I, Daniel Blake. Michael’s poem Migrants, inspired partially by Eithne Nightingale’s film, Child Migrant Stories is one of many that touches upon social issues, along with others in this collection. Mild Zealot is a reflection on unexpected scenarios that could occur when people from different cultures meet:
It happened not as you’d imagined but in unkempt rooms./ They lacked the diffidence you’d scripted,/ spoke of sickness, tax and rumour,/ troubled neither by their errors/ nor your arguments and morbid need for confrontation./
‘They will know that I have spoken in my zeal’ Ezekiel 5:13
In Time and Tall Ships, Michael refers to an albatross, (possibly an allusion to Coleridge’s famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). As in this classic poem, Michael asks philosophical, and existential questions about one’s internal travels. As do many of his other poems including, Connecting with the Wreck, Filling a Vacancy and Mourners.
While this coincidence of mentioning the albatross may have been unintentional on Michael’s part, the format that he chooses to write in has something in common with the great poets of the past. To quote Michael, ‘my poems often have regular metrical structures organised in stanzas and I seldom venture into free verse.’1
Artist Paul Benjamin’s print prompted the poet to pen Winter on the Rye, where Ezekiel’s quote is, ‘your prophets have been like foxes in the wasteland.’ On the one hand this quote shows that nothing much seems to have changed when it comes to the nature of politicians. On the other hand, nature’s ways continue in the same manner as they have for thousands of years. Rodents and foxes go about their own business as they always have, perhaps adjusting to human encroachment on their natural habitats. Forthcoming Events, Image Consultant, along with other poems are an astute commentary on the political scene these days.
Since Michael is the Poetry Editor of London Grip, he has to read lots of contemporary poems. He’s distilled some of his editing experiences in Revising The Vision:
Editors need good intentions when they proof-read/ prophecy; so on Page One they only mean/
to fix the grammar without overbalancing/ a golden ratio of dreams to dogma./
But it’s hard for them to curb their urge to drop/ big blocks of orthodoxy on the seer’s pool/
of bright quicksilver speculation till it splits/ to shining pellets scuttling in the dust.
Despite going through verses and stanzas written by thousands of other poets, he has maintained his own unique style in that his poems are often multi-layered, and explore the broader picture, while focusing on a specific image or situation as well. Covering a wide range of topics, these poems provide a lot of food for reflection, while inviting the readers to conduct their own research about many subjects both in our inner and outer psychological landscapes, as well as about our socio-economic and political affairs.
1Source: https://www.verse-virtual.org/2024/October/raza-sultana-mbb-interview–2024-october.html
About the Reviewer: Of Indian origin, Sultana Raza’s poems/fiction/CNF have appeared in numerous journals, including in Columbia Journal, New Verse News, Verse Virtual, Blaze Vox, Moonstone Arts Centre, & London Grip. Her fiction received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train Review. Her short story is forthcoming in the Achilles Anthology by Flame Tree Press. Her creative non-fiction has appeared in Literary Ladies Guide, Literary Yard, Litro, Dream Pop Journal. An awarded artist, she’s received Honorable Mentions in international competitions such as the Julia Cameron Awards or the IPA. Her artworks have appeared in 3elements Review, Aothen, Alchemy Spoon, and other journals. https://www.facebook.com/sultana.raza.7