This assured and arresting first collection moves deftly and with purpose into private, hidden places - a locked shed, the dark of a battery farm, a murky riverbed, a late-night bar - to show, unflinchingly and in cinematic detail, what we might otherwise choose not to see. Sight is both a gift and curse, of course: given or taken away in poems of windows and curtains, torches, and blindfolds, and yet here - following in the tradition of Oswald and Heaney - each image is freshly minted through a cool, objective eye.
Every poem seeks to inhabit those seemingly small but pivotal moments which have monumental, sometimes mortal, consequences. For Pajak, time is fluid: a blink can be 'slow as an eclipse', our lifetimes are fleeting, our deaths often lingering and seldom peaceful or painless.
Vivid and visceral, steadily examining violence, sexual encounters, childhood, and ageing (a dying grandmother's 'slow pink eyelids, those quick teaspoon breaths'), cars and cities, and Nature - full of wonder and threat - Slide is always asking pertinent questions: illuminating brutality, frailty and tenderness, the responsibility of those who witness - whether voyeur, bystander, or reader. This is a charged, beautifully observed, and thrilling debut.
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She chafes a flame from the lighter,listens to its gush of butane.- RESET
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(@PenguinUKBooks, 4 August 2022, e-book, 80 pages, copy from @natpoetrylib via @OverDriveInc)
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I really enjoyed Slide. I read this collection in small doses over a few days. I'd never heard of the poet before. I enjoyed the themes explored in the poems, most very relatable such as violence, relationships, growing up and becoming old. The imagery used is very vivid. I especially liked Reset, Fence, The Tilt, Dare and Wreck.