Tim Cumming

Going through my shelves I found "the miniature estate" (Smith/Doorstep, 1991) and "Apocalypso" (Scratch, 1992), both by Tim Cumming. I like them. I realise I'm trying to write more like that nowadays. Shades of Luke Kennard but more gritty, more overtly political, less meta-poetic. Here are a few quotes.

• A black girl gave out pamphlets in the library,
  you could win a free pizza.
  Two girls in a phone box made random calls
  from a diary found outside The Admiral Nelson
  
  (from "Living by numbers")
  
  
• The housemaid's dead and I've got to run.
  There's a factory fire, tailback
  from Cheyne Walk to Rotherhithe, a number
  of casualties and still no ambulance.
  I'm reading the Ladybird History of Thatcherism,
  it's well illustrated with fine river views
  and commercial breaks everywhere in Tuscany.
  
  (from "UK Roadmap")
  
  
• Coming quietly through two way mirrors
  with blackmail angles and fingerprint dust.
  Do not move without a punchline
  that is not an ad lib
  and where were you last night?
  
  (from "Official Secrets")
  
  

Sometimes a striking start isn't sustained. Usually though he manages to develop the original premise, or braid the multiple themes he introduces early on. "UK Roadmap" is my favorite poem ("The empire's shrunk to a charity ball,/ to a welder's spark, to the presence/ of royalty and now I'm getting emotional") and "Speed Chess in Zero Gravity" is my favorite title.