{"id":280,"date":"2022-08-23T14:27:39","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T13:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/?p=280"},"modified":"2023-06-01T17:16:54","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T16:16:54","slug":"on-starlings-with-caleb-parkin-and-holly-hopkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/23\/on-starlings-with-caleb-parkin-and-holly-hopkins\/","title":{"rendered":"On Starlings, with Caleb Parkin and Holly Hopkins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How does a poem mimic (or capture, or transmute) something so visual, so kinetic, so <em>unliterary<\/em>, as the sight of a murmuration of starlings? And is there any point in it trying to, when we can see the spectacle for ourselves at any time, via a brief internet search? Where is the sense in using such a tired machine as language \u2013 words on a page \u2013 to describe something that can be experienced first hand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/e\/ee\/Flock_of_birds_at_Rome.ogv\"><\/video><figcaption>(Source: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Flock_of_birds_at_Rome.ogv)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s look at how two different poems answer these questions. Holly Hopkins\u2019 \u2018Starlings\u2019 was first published in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/sidekickbooks.com\/booklab\/books\/birdbook-towns-parks-gardens-and-woodland\/\">Birdbook: Towns, Parks, Gardens and Woodland<\/a><\/em>, a book I co-edited in 2010, and has been most recently printed in her Forward Prize-nominated collection <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/06\/the-english-summer\/\">The English Summer<\/a><\/em>. Caleb Parkin\u2019s \u2018The Starling Committee Decides\u2019 is published in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racemepoetry.com\/\">Raceme<\/a><\/em> no. 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Starlings-by-Holly-Hopkins.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"877\" src=\"http:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Starlings-by-Holly-Hopkins.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Starlings-by-Holly-Hopkins.png 620w, https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Starlings-by-Holly-Hopkins-212x300.png 212w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Image of &#8216;Starlings&#8217;<br>(Click to see full-size version)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p>\u2018Starlings\u2019 is written in iambic tetrameter and composed of rhyming four-line stanzas.  This is a form that\u2019s easy to read quickly, almost breathlessly, because it\u2019s broken into same-sized units, which are themselves broken into same-sized units. Each four-line stanza is made up of two rhyming couplets. Each couplet is made up of two lines. Each line is made up of four beats. Each beat is made up of one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables. This is about as straightforward as language-patterning gets, and thereby allows the eye and the ear to move forward at pace. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The poem is also a cascade of images, one after another after another. There are no scene transitions and only the thinnest commentary is offered; instead, we move from fens as \u2018dying seas\u2019 to sedges, to marsh, to ragged lines of starlings, a \u2018budding, chirping swell\u2019, \u2018kneaded dough\u2019, a \u2018churning shoal\u2019, a \u2018living sack\u2019, a \u2018thread of trust\u2019 and so on. It seems on a first read-through that the murmuration only takes shape in the second stanza, and that the way the poem tries to capture the spectacle is through those images in the second, third and fourth stanzas, all of which are apt but, one might argue, not a patch on seeing the thing with your own eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s the combination of form with rapid succession of images that provides the more compelling imitation. \u2018Starlings\u2019 moves in the mind just like a miniature murmuration, one shape changing to another at speed: swell into flow, flow into dough, shoal into sack, sack into thread. This sets up a contrast with the watchers described in the poem\u2019s last stanza, who stand \u2018locked inside their coats\u2019, not daring to speak because of their uncertainty about \u2018blundering\u2019, failing to synch up with one another. Human self-consciousness is here starkly presented as a frailty, an inability to harmonise, with the effect that progress is brought to a standstill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p> \u2018The Starling Committee Decides\u2019 takes a different approach. The poem is shaped like a snapshot of a murmuration, with the individual words as individual birds. This makes its rhythm rather bumpy, since the lines are all sorts of different lengths and don\u2019t even start at the same left-hand margin. Parkin adds to this effect by splitting words across lines (\u2018murmur\/ation\u2019, \u2018fund\/ers\u2019) and using multiple voices which interrupt and talk across one another. It is, as the title indicates, a portrayal of a committee \u2013 the voices are not so distinct that clear characters emerge, so we are left with an impression of a squabbling, disorganised cacophony. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Starling-Committee-Decides-by-Caleb-Parkin.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"647\" height=\"886\" src=\"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Starling-Committee-Decides-by-Caleb-Parkin.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Starling-Committee-Decides-by-Caleb-Parkin.png 647w, https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Starling-Committee-Decides-by-Caleb-Parkin-219x300.png 219w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 647px) 100vw, 647px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Image of &#8216;The Starling Committee Decides&#8217; in Raceme 13.<br>(Click for larger photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As in Hopkins\u2019 poem, there is a strongly implied contrast. The starlings here are humanised, deploying bureaucratic jargon (\u2018returnability\u2019, \u2018natural capital\u2019) and in clear disagreement as to how to proceed. They keep referring to murmuration but have lost the ability to murmurate (\u2018we don\u2019t have the numbers\u2019). Parkin has frozen them in two ways: by deploying the poem as a still image, and by imbuing them with human reason and individuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both poems suffer from eco-anxiety; \u2018Starlings\u2019 begins with a reference to the deterioration of the fenlands, while \u2018The Starling Committee Decides\u2019 is premised on reports of collapsing starling populations, handily explained in a footnote. Both respond to this anxiety by turning the spectacle of murmuration back on its human observers. One uses the speed and sweep of language, turning its eye on us very suddenly; the other makes use of the writer\u2019s ability to pause and rearrange, so that we recognise the detail of the accusation. Both seem to agree that we are too young and inexperienced, as individuals, to know how to pull together as a species.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>LINKS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sidekickbooks.com\/booklab\/books\/birdbook-towns-parks-gardens-and-woodland\/\"><em>Birdbook: Towns, Parks, Gardens and Woodland<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/06\/the-english-summer\/\">Holly Hopkins&#8217; <em>The English Summer<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ninearchespress.com\/publications\/poetry-collections\/this-fruiting-body\">Caleb Parkin&#8217;s <em>This Fruiting Body<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/19\/raceme-no-13-another-labyrinth\/\">My post on <em>Raceme<\/em> 13<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How does a poem mimic (or capture, or transmute) something so visual, so kinetic, so unliterary, as the sight of a murmuration of starlings? And is there any point in it trying to, when we can see the spectacle for ourselves at any time, via a brief internet search? Where is the sense in using [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[328],"tags":[4,337],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362,"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gojonstonego.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}