EX NIHILO
EX NIHILO
by Paul Stubbs (Black Herald Press, 2010)
Ex Nihilo (Latin meaning ‘out of nothing’, for instance the universe just appeared ex nihilo) is a poem about making poems, how they originate from an author then somehow organically gain a life of their own. Throughout the poem the author seems to be in a variety of vaguely suggested metaphysical quandaries that are never completely teased out. Furthermore, the poem has a reduced and contextless feeling to it, eerily hanging like a ruined Gothic arch. Although the author says he lives in Paris there is no mention of the city all around him which is a presumably fitting subject for a poem. Perhaps external reality hardly intrudes upon Stubb’s ambient world. Ultimately Ex Nihilo is a poem that should be read alongside other poems, real poems, to remind the reader of the difference. There’s lots of humourless self-indulgence here, circling around subject matter as water pours down a plughole, leaving a faint circle of detritus. This aftertaste soon disappears after reading poetry, not this sermon by a priest. The clue to the entire collection is the Latin title that indicates a religious quandary rather than an actual life experience.
Paul Murphy
by Paul Stubbs (Black Herald Press, 2010)
Ex Nihilo (Latin meaning ‘out of nothing’, for instance the universe just appeared ex nihilo) is a poem about making poems, how they originate from an author then somehow organically gain a life of their own. Throughout the poem the author seems to be in a variety of vaguely suggested metaphysical quandaries that are never completely teased out. Furthermore, the poem has a reduced and contextless feeling to it, eerily hanging like a ruined Gothic arch. Although the author says he lives in Paris there is no mention of the city all around him which is a presumably fitting subject for a poem. Perhaps external reality hardly intrudes upon Stubb’s ambient world. Ultimately Ex Nihilo is a poem that should be read alongside other poems, real poems, to remind the reader of the difference. There’s lots of humourless self-indulgence here, circling around subject matter as water pours down a plughole, leaving a faint circle of detritus. This aftertaste soon disappears after reading poetry, not this sermon by a priest. The clue to the entire collection is the Latin title that indicates a religious quandary rather than an actual life experience.
Paul Murphy
posted by Paul Murphy at
October 19, 2010
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