James Norcliffe: Rat Tickling

Reviewed by PENELOPE BIEDER

Did you know that rats and humans respond to physical tickling in much the same way? Well, you do now - according to Christchurch poet James Norcliffe. He is quite sure he's read that rats are just as capable of "wiping meaningless tears away" if provoked by a feather. The line the "near-silent rapture of a rat" did cause me to gaze rather harder at the black and white photo of the poet.

The poems in his fourth collection of poetry were largely written on Norcliffe's return to New Zealand after three years living in Brunei Darussalam on the island of Borneo. He has also lived for an extended period in China, but he was born in Greymouth. Knowing this makes it easier to recognise the references to all these places in his work. And locations crop up with surprising frequency: Birdling's Flat, Motukarara, Snodgrass, Hororata - all good, solid South Island names.

Seven poems appear under the heading "Franz Joseph" where the "tv has double vision and snow blindness" but "the heart of the glacier/ is as hard cold and blue/ as a carefully carried memory/ ruthless and perfect". But they are not all about this town. Were they written there, perhaps?

This is a wonderful collection of poems, alternately light and frothy, then dark and muscular. Inspired by the collateral damage that life inflicts on us all, he uses images of roadkill, funghi, sphagnum moss and mudfish to write spare poems about love and sex and death.

Suburbia is as threatening as the blue heart of a glacier - even Decramastic tiles, ghastly reminders of the 70s, get more than one mention. A man with a chainsaw is dealing to the neighbourhood peace: "a wild snarl echoed off/ the decramastic tiles/ stack chairs and white trellises/ and all the concrete urns of suburbia ... " This in a poem titled "Tycho Brahe's Nose" - by the way did you know that Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer (1546-1601) had a prosthetic brass (or silver) nose?

Black humour overcomes but does not overpower subtle scholarship - this collection is entertaining, and its stylish design belies its reasonable price.

Sudden Valley Press, $19.95

* Penelope Bieder is a freelance writer.