This week’s poetry spotlight shines on Steve Brock’s Live at Mr Jake’s, highlighting the poem ‘On the passing of a friend’. 

Post written by Polly Grant Butler

Another week, another Friday rolls around, and this morning I found myself once again kneeled before Wakefield’s poetry shelf, searching for a poem for this week’s newsletter. It’s a slim shelf, but a deceiving one. I always find something new. This morning was no different, suddenly, eagerly, immersed in the pages of  Live at Mr Jake’s by Steve Brock.

Flicking through the collection I was aware of how chatty and perceptive these poems are, full of mundane objects and events – the taxi driver, the bus stop, the washing of the hair. But, of course, when drawn alongside thoughtful and clever observations, the insignificant always becomes significant.  

Halfway in, I discovered a poem that struck me immediately, about grief for a friend, how it doesn’t feel the way you would expect: ‘maybe / his death had affected me more than I let on / but it was still somewhere ahead of me / so I would see his likeness in a crowd’. The idea of grief dislocating your emotions from the reality of things very much resonates with me, and it is beautifully articulated here.

The repetition in this poem feels both intentional and unintentional. Intentional, in that it isn’t at all careless; the rhythm gently flows, uninterrupted by echoed words. However, the impact is subtle, with the poem mirroring the natural thoughts of a person trying to comprehend something that exists ‘before and after language’.

Funny how, although so many experiences in life seem ineffable, poets still manage to find ways to evoke them.

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