Scottish Review of Books: A to B

A number of things mark out A To B as the work of a young poet. There are several considerations of what poetry is and does – “to observe tiny immensities/with eyes like sharks” – that betray a certain anxiety perhaps. There is also a passing whiff of sentimentality: “It brings knowledge/ and understanding that/gentleness somehow endures,/that our lives, sweet breathable/lives, are scent and honey”. Try telling them that in Darfur. But some excellent poems signal McGrath’s promise. Take ‘A Question’. The voice that speaks the lines sees young lovers entwined (as poets are wont to do) and thinks, “May they love each other, easelessly,/without quarter, even if it kills them”. Is this a blessing or a curse? “Alone, you raise a hand up your back/and feel where nails tore flesh last night./Why do you do it?” Why indeed? Perhaps the ambiguity can be resolved through the image of the “liquid/glass” through which the poet views the lovers. “Liquid glass” is a paradox but one that happens, scientifically, to be viable. Perhaps something is true of love, which exists despite (or even because of) the violent passions it arouses. Still, not an easy or attractive thing to contemplate, something McGrath at his fitful best reminds us.