Adam O’Riordan
Originally from Manchester O’Riordan has an outstanding bio- after reading English at Oxford; he went on to win a scholarship to study under Andrew Motion at the University of London. He has been awarded an Art’s Council Writers award, Poetry Book Pamphlet Choice and won the Peters, Fraser and Dunlop poetry prize. The youngest poet-in-residence at the Wordsworth Trust, he spent a year in William and Dorothy’s house writing and leading discussions with the Centre for British Romanticism, and he also writes for the Guardian and the Evening Standard.
In Flesh is the new book to be released in July 2010. It dips between the modern and the archaic, harking back to Wordsworth’s domestic life with his sister in A Double Wash Stand. ‘Before the age condemned such joint ablutions,’ gently referring to the very close relationship between the siblings. This poem lingers on the thought of incest, and the beauty of the union of man and woman. He does not cheapen these musings but finds beauty in it.
Maybe this is just a poets’ role, to muse on the dark and sordid affairs of others, if not themselves. Does this seem contrived? No, I think that O’Riordan uses such a lightness of language that it transcends all subject matter and romanticizing that could occur.
"We're animals that exist in language so we will always need poetry. When I used to introduce myself as a poet, it felt like saying 'Hi, I'm a wanker', but now I feel more secure."
I think he is aware of the assumptions that people have about poets, especially young poets. But this is no bedroom anxiety trip- this is well-crafted art.
He brings poetry into the everyday, drawing his audience into spaces where the guilty pleasures of the 21st Century occur, as in Silver Lake, featured in the soon to be released In Flesh. This poem uncovers the sordid weekend trips of a friend in Mexico.
Then his poem Google that he performed at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester in January dissipates the feeling of time wasting from the act. The late night search upon search of names of people we’ve met, or would like to meet. The constant difference, a guilty pleasure that I think we all are subject to.
Adam O’Riordan gives me the feeling that strong poetry is still in force and breaking new boundaries, even in print. Keep a look out for this one, with his deep resonating Northern tones.
Aquila Dunford Wood