Skald  

Northwords Now Issue No. 11

www.northwordsnow.co.uk

SKALD
Poems by Ian Crockatt
Published by Koo Press
32pp. £5

Reviewer: Rhoda Michael

I first came on Ian Crockatt’s poetry about 12 years ago in a review where he was described as a ‘poet’s poet’. I could only guess what that might mean. Now I understand one thing it means about Ian is that he is keenly interested in the crafting of what he writes, that other poets may find it interesting, exciting even, to look at how he does it.

His publishing history is impressive with, now, five collections since Original Myths (Cruachan Publications 2001) and with his next (Translations from Rilke – see our P4 – in preparation now).

This current pamphlet explains that SKALDS were professional poets of considerable sophistication employed by the kings and earls of Viking courts of the 9th to 13th centuries – essentially an oral tradition. From such records of it as remain Ian has taught himself their skills: and has succeeded in recreating them in his own highly disciplined style.

But these are not just disciplined and masterly exercises: this is a short collection in which ‘people love, go to war, suffer’; in which real lives are intensely, passionately experienced.