Book Review by Catherine Mark-Beasant
John Siddique’s ‘Poems from a Northern Soul’ interlaces snapshots of daily life and landscapes in the North. Divided into three sections – ‘Visible Imprints’, ‘Available Light’ and ‘Northern Soul’ – each is rich in everyday scenes, encounters and modern day experiences. Like the zoom of a camera he captures both the panoramic and the particular in the images wrapped around the tart prose style of his poems.
From a Saturday morning scene in McDonald’s (A Big Mac and Two Happy Meals) to observations of suburban animals (Dogs – Salford) he connects the reader to the grassroots pulse of routine and the everyday. The familiarity and fondness for the poet’s Northern life oozes through the pores of each poem. In addition, he explores philosophical and political themes with subtly probing questions like ‘Where is there an edge?’ (Finding an Edge) or cutting declarations like ‘We will come to this new land, never knowing your philosophy, that an empire begins with an open hand’ (To the Leader of the Free World).
His inquiry causes his collection to pulsate with an evolving energy and momentum that not only depicts the grit of the landscape but also echoes the yearnings of a restless soul. Siddique’s simple yet captivating poems have the power to get under your skin in such a way that they linger in your subconscious right from the first read. ‘Poems from a Northern Soul’ is an accomplished work and is a cracking contemporary collection of our times.

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