RECITAL by
Dr Claire Chambers - BA (Hons), MA, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature and Course Leader, MA Contemporary Literatures

In recent years, much has been written about terrorism and fiction, both by novelists (Amis, Updike, McEwan, Faulks, et al) and literary critics such as Margaret Scanlan, and Stephen Morton and Elleke Boehmer. However, to my knowledge, little has been said about terror and poetry. This is surprising, given the role of public poetry in delivering swift interventions after cataclysmic events. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on London, poetry proved an importance forum for articulating outrage and trauma at the events, as is evidenced in the internet poetry competition set up by All Poetry immediately after the attacks, and Tony Harrison’s ‘Shrapnel’, which was published in The Independent a few weeks later.

In my view, however, the most important and sensitive poetic response to the 2005 London bombings to have been produced so far is the sequence ‘Inside’, in John Siddique’s volume Recital. These poems constitute an urban series at the centre of a largely rural collection, and offer a nuanced, even-handed response to 7/7. In the first poem in the quartet, the narrator expresses anxieties about his right to represent such trauma in poetry:

There are poems to write which I am told should
Not be written, almost as if to think
about a thing condones it (Siddique, 2009, p. 28).

However, ‘an answer’ of a sort is found in the bead of sweat on the face of a loved one, and in the three subsequent poems, Siddique takes a brave and balanced look at the terrible events of 7 July 2005. ‘There is No More Time’ describes the ordinary commuters ‘looking forward /to a cup of tea, or just getting there’, who are decimated in the bomb that explodes at 9.47 am on the Tavistock Square bus, after which ‘time ceases to exist’ (p. 29). In ‘This Is What You Were Born For’, Siddique enters the mind of the teenaged bus bomber, Hasib Mir Hussain, who, like the poet, lived in West Yorkshire. Siddique speculates on the techniques Hussain used to ‘pull[…] inside’ (p. 30), disconnecting from the other passengers in order to create the necessary devastation. Finally, and most movingly, ‘Nobody Knows Why’ is a lyrical meditation on the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead at Stockwell Tube Station the day after the failed bombings of 21 July 2005. At other points in the collection, the theme of incendiary violence resurfaces in the image of ‘the terrorist in my dreams’ (p. 9) in the poem ‘The Other’, which deals with masculine enmity, lost love, and raw anger. In ‘David’, the poet discusses a friend, with whom he ‘agreed for a decade, then one day we didn’t’ (p. 17), the dissolution of the friendship being played out against the city skyline of pre-9/11 New York.

Elsewhere in Recital’s poetic representations, there are evocative images of the Calderdale countryside from the writer who gave us Poems from a Northern Soul. This new collection is based around the lunar cycle, with thirteen poems, including ‘Birch Moon’ and ‘Ivy Moon’, richly studding the volume. In earlier writing, John Siddique speaks eloquently about his mixture of Anglo-Irish and Indian roots (‘Variola’, from his first collection Prize, centres on his father’s traumatic journey to Pakistan during India’s Partition). Recital is the most astonishing and mature work of his career to date, in which he continues discussion of his parents’ different legacies in poems such as ‘Unintended Loyalty’, ‘Red Line (He Loves Me)’, ‘My Father’ and ‘Annunciation of the Virgin’. These are also hinted at in the poems’ complex references which remake both European and Eastern literary traditions. Examples include the allusion to Eliot’s The Waste Land found in the final line of Hazel Moon, ‘distant thunder’ (p. 40); tropes deriving from Japanese and Chinese myth (‘Promises’), traces of Joyce’s Ulysses and Urdu ghazals. Unerringly humane and unexpectedly tender, John Siddique’s Recital is already benefiting from wide word-of-mouth recommendation, and deserves to become a key text on poetry syllabi for this nascent millennium.

Interview in The Argotist about 'Recital' and my writing life.

interview on Classic FM about Poetry, Creativity and Young People.

Feature from Blackpool Gazette on 'John Siddique's Blackpool - A Poet's View'

Article in US Spanish Newspaper 'La Opinion' on Translation Project of four Mexican poets.

Two Pieces from Halifax Courier on Los Angeles Residency 'Departing' and 'Returning'

Review of 'Don't wear it on your head,' at Children's Educational Booksite Write Away

Review of 'Poems from a Northern Soul,' by Adam Fieled

A very nice online article at BBC West Yorkshire, about my work and the 'Four Fathers' book

A short interview from 'The Guardian'

Bradford Bookscapes

Article from the Yorkshire Post about 'Four Fathers"

'Men Behaving Dadly' from The Literacy Trust

Recital - Reviewed by Catherine Woodward in The Osprey Magazine

John Siddique is named as the poet to begin a new renaissance; he has worked inspiring disadvantaged young people as well as occupying various similar positions in prisons, schools and hospitals. He believes in direct messages, the enduring power of words and also rises at six thirty each morning for yoga with his partner whom he loves dearly. Publicly, Siddique is a familiar character - the man with the unstoppable desire to help and an unshakable faith in the power of straight language to bring about change.
To those, like me, who share an innate bias against optimism, the assumed end product of these neat ideals and hard labour, is none too promising. When a hard working, charitable, yet incurably idealistic man says to people like me – ‘my writing is direct. I don't believe in trying to show the reader how clever I am’ – people like me assume that their writing will lack the emotiveness and effectiveness of other poems whose cruces are moving because they go unsaid. We expect that the most important details of the story will go uncommunicated because the poet is trying too hard to ‘tell the story’.

However, Siddique has achieved a quite wonderful medium with Recital. The book still involves the optimism and faith that the poet publicly shows, but it has been tempered with reality and personal experience, so what is produced is a very readable tug between optimism and pessimism, the real and the romantic. This culminates (quite unexpectedly) not into a vow to make things better, encourage all to express themselves etc, but instead in an acceptance of an unstoppable cycle of things, imaginatively illustrated by the overarching narrative of the year and lunar cycle (which quite subtly, makes self expression feel naturally easy). Sadness is not a concept to analyse and study, here it is naturally occurring and reliable, and in a strange way welcomed. There seems to be a melancholy celebration in sadness, in a sublimity of suffering together with a will to get through and a relishing of this cycle. All very romantic, pagan and suburban. You will like this book.

Recital contains unexpected hope, balanced against the mundane and guarded against the temptation to be ‘fluffy’ or ‘sickly’, the mistake of many poets of Siddique’s persuasion. Here is where directness works, even when using his most extensive metaphors Siddique’s route is general feeling with personal highlights and flashpoints. The reader then, while left to their own devices to feel this idea of the gravity of the earth, is at the same time guided to identify with the speaker. The result is a mutual understanding where everything, if not clear, feels clear and reassuring. Recital makes you happy to be sad and glad to be happy.
Perhaps Recital is something that we need, not as a cure for ‘these times’, which if Recital demonstrates anything, is that these times are the same as all times, but a map and a guide who neither pushes nor shoves but who is romantic in good measures and miserable in his turn, as many of us are not. Recital will undoubtedly enthuse you for renaissance.

Poems from a Northern Soul - Reviewed by Elizabeth Rosa Horan (Professor of English - Arizona State University)

John Siddique is one of Britain's most interesting and original poets. He probes the contradictory jumble of contemporary Britain. He reveals the bravery, contemporary, daily heroism in the courts and prisons, the towns, the urban sprawl that he clearly knows well. We're shown the State grinding down, followed by escape in the promise of the ordinary, in compassion, and in language. I love the multiple openings that come with exploring the full range of words such as "leaving."

There's an impressive range in this unassuming volume. From deeply human elegies, such as to "Kathy," to songs: "down, down, deeper and down...not yet but soon, again" to lightning-like short meditations, the poet speculates on sexual attraction, turf, walks, industrial and dockside landscapes. There are heart-breakingly brilliant propositions, such as "we'll rename the streets after their real stories: Smack Head Valley. Skinhead Avenue,/Race Riot Street. Touch me there Road. /Drug Deal Walk. First Kiss Gardens. /Pissed-up Lane. Possibility Fields."

"Visible Imprints" invites us to burn our diaries, to intimacy with "no more pushing away." Another section, "Northern Soul" talks back to the surveillance that hems in life in both Britain and the US. "Have you provided proof of identity?" asks one poem. Siddique's most lucid lines often seem to emerge, take off from overheard conversation. So does "Sheltered Accomodation" take us into prison and beyond, with a Sampson-like meditation on "the tree" underlying the shelter. "Youth Court Waiting Area" notes the similarity of Church and legal system. I find myself wondering if Siddique will someday write for theater, with his eye for drama and his ear for language.

Presence and commitment are key. Siddique has walked the walk, moves from showing the mirror and the dance to pointing towards a future where people can "lift themselves from drinking and disorder." Young fighters, "young gods of the clubs" manage "to keep clean, with no fixed abode." Why does this matter? Because "the world is on probation with them." Committed to looking behind attitude and façade and the false freedom of "Saturday night," these polished and unpretentious poems are two parts revelation to three parts stubborn hope drawn from the shadow of time, a new-old landscape, seen through "nineteen year-old eyes."

Praise for 'The Prize'

'Siddique is good on the gaps between things, the accumulated eloquence of silences and isolated incidents...out of which we make poetry.' Andy Croft - The Morning Star

'Nicely made poems which I'll be reading again, can imagine they're good to hear from his mouth' - Michael Horovitz

'The Prize' Review - The Morning Star
John Siddique is a well-known figure on the circuit of festivals and writing-residencies, whose work has been published in many magazines. But it took a small press to publish him. His first full-length The Prize (Rialto, £7.95) was worth waiting for - strong, clear and precise poetry of everyday life. Siddique is good on the gaps between things, the accumulated eloquence of silences and isolated incidents, the connections between apparently lifeless objects that make a life and out of which we make poetry.

There are some wonderful poems here - notably about the young son that he has not seen for years, his father's journey from Pakistan, his mother's Belfast and his own lovers, imagined and real.Siddique is also one of 12 contributors to Not in So Many Words (Smith/Doorstop, £7). It's a wonderful and original anthology of Northern poets, including Cliff Yates, Steven Waling and Ann Sansom.Uniquely, the poets explain the process of composition behind their poems in the book, the false starts, lucky breaks and hard work out of which all poetry is made.

Andy Croft

'Transparency' Review - CITY LIFE
During 2005 poet John Siddique became Commonword's first poet in residence and worked as mentor to a group of writers. The result is this new collection of poetry, Transparency (£5.99 Crocus), featuring thirteen Commonword poets, some recognisable from the performance poetry scene amongst other, less familiar names. The title, Siddique explains in the introduction, was chosen because the collection presents "poetry that provides a window to the life within" in a style which doesn't seek to confuse, but rather to reveal. Certainly, it's an accessible collection, a short, compact book featuring two or three poems by each writer, just enough to engage, not enough to swamp.  

Relationships are a rich mine of material: The book opens with Hannah Kate's 'Dinner', evoking an unappetising date at a curry house, Steve O'Connor's 'Love Manifests' shows how emotions reveals themselves and uncover truths about the lover, too: "My love manifests as/wanting you never to die./ You're the first to make me feel that way./Normally I'd imagine myself/clinging to the grave./trying my worst to look enigmatic." And in Rosie Lugosi's 'The New Semaphore' a fearful partner tries to interpret the new meaning behind the old signals: "Hands making the right/moves, but worked by pulley; invisible ropes." The relationship with the self is explored in Suzanne Batty's emotive 'Paper Baby' and Jackie Hagan's 'Therapist' ("he has a face like a raised eyebrow"), whilst the collection is given a sense of escapism in Jan Whalen's melodious and tranquil 'Harbour of Grace' and in Sonia Hughes' fable-like 'Hansel'.  Varied and inventive in style and subject matter, this collection might be slim, and even 'transparent', but it's also substantial, a valuable window into the value of Commonword's continued encouragement of creative writing in the city.  

Nicola Mostyn - Dec 2005

John Siddique works overtime - CITY LIFE
BEING a poet keeps John Siddique busy. Since beginning to write in his late twenties, Siddique has seen his poems featured in various anthologies including The Fire People and The British Anthology of South Asian Poetry and in magazines such as The North.

He has also published chapbooks, appeared on Radio 4 and the BBC and had a poem, ‘Variola’, nominated for best single poem for the 2004 Forward Prize.

Now, he is not only the first poet in residence at Manchester's community publishers Commonword, mentoring budding writers and running regular workshops, but the affable writer is also BBC Manchester’s online resident poet, writing works based on current affairs and the stories submitted by his readers.

Then there's the Four Father's anthology, published by Route (downloadable from route-online.com), which features Ray French, James Nash and Tom Palmer, to which Siddique contributed the affecting short story 'A Photo of my Father....'.

Oh yes, and there’s a forthcoming collection of poems, Prize, published soon by Rialto, the rather interesting blog he maintains on his website (johnsiddique.co.uk) and, this months several events in and around Manchester, including a Poets and Players event at Linda Chase's Village Hall where he’ll be reading his rich, emotive works along with Commonword students. Which does rather beg the question – how does he find time to write any poems!?

Nicola Mostyn - 15th June 2005

Vienna Feedback

John Siddique’s Poetry Workshop and Reading
The poetry workshop that took place on 26 May 2007 at the Hauptbücherei am Gürtel was exciting and different for me.  Although I do write, I have never tried my hand at poetry, so it was really great to get tips on what to do from an expert.  John explained everything well, was funny and kept us working hard.  I learned what anthologies to buy to help my poetry reading, what focus or shifting focus to use when writing; I learned that it is better to show the reader what we want to say rather than just telling them, and that a good way to find content is by having a list of what poetry could be about.  As we also had time to try out these ideas through actually writing poetry, the experience was very valuable; and we could see the results as members of the workshop read what they had written.  Two hours was just enough, but a follow-up workshop would have been even better.
John’s poetry reading just an hour later was too short.  It would have been wonderful to hear even more of what he has written.  His poems about his parents were impressive and because he told us something about himself before, added an extra dimension to his reading of them.  His children’s poems could be appreciated just as well by adults and besides the content – he has a lovely voice.  Naturally I would like to hear more.
Dr. Candy Fresacher is a member of the board of TEA (Teachers of English in Austria) and editor of the ELT News .

John Siddique is an extraordinarily gifted teacher who can make even the most uncertain workshop participant feel at ease, and through the force of his personality enables people to do things they didn't know they could do.

Gemma Russell

Exploring bond between father and son - Hebden Bridge Times
THE LITERARY talents of a Todmorden and Hebden Bridge duo are on display in a new book exploring the unique bond between father and son. Tom Palmer, of Todmorden and John Siddique, of Hebden Bridge, put pen to paper along with two other writers to produce the work entitled Four Fathers. Having recently become a father himself, Tom commissioned John and two Leeds based authors, Ray French and James Nash, to write the book, which was launched at Halifax Central Library last week. Tom, 37, was inspired to write the book following the birth of his daughter, Iris, 16 months ago and after a visit to the Croatian town of Dubrovnik. He said: "My father went to Dubrovnik a couple of years before he died and part of the reason I went there was to come to terms with his death. "While I was there I came across a statue holding a model of the town, which was poignant as my dad used to make models.

"The book is a collection of true stories about the relationship between father and son and is a very honest account. "It's not black and white, but somewhere in between." Tom, a keen football supporter who has previously written If You're Proud to be a Leeds Fan, was delighted with the first reading in Halifax. He said: "We spoke about our fathers first, but it was brilliant because every single person in the room joined in to speak about their dads." Poet John Siddique, 40, said he was particularly moved at the reading by a man who spoke for the first time about being adopted. He said: "The project has taken on a life of its own and the reading seems to have really touched that man. "Who knows, the intended course of his life may have unravelled because he was finally able to talk about his experiences. "It was great for me to write about my own father, who I haven't seen since I was six.
"When my parents divorced my mum threw the wedding albums in the bin, but I dug them out. "
"One of the pictures was the inspiration for my story, which is about my father choosing his best man."
"I don't know how it actually happened, but that's the beauty of writing, you can alter the past."

The writers intend to tour around 10 venues in the north, including Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. Tom is also planning to retrace the steps of Laurie Lee 70 years after his journey across Spain. He will be embarking on the trip with his family in a mobile home. Four Fathers is now available by visiting the publisher's website at www.route-online.com.

4th March 2005

Offenders keep in touch with children - Yorkshire Post 15th April 2003

YOUNG offenders are staying in touch with their children thanks to a pioneering scheme at Wetherby Young Offender Institution.

The project involves young fathers recording bedtime stories on tape. The tapes are then put in boxes together with letters and photographs and sent to the children. Writer in residence John Siddique said: "This is the first time such a project has been run at Wetherby YOI. It is a really simple idea. "As well as keeping and building connections, it gets the young fathers to think about their responsibilities. It may even go towards helping some not to re-offend in the future." Many of the young fathers have welcomed the opportunity to talk about their children. One young father said: "It makes me feel better to think that my son is hearing my voice at night." Mr Siddique added: "The idea of a writer in prison may seem strange. I try to work with books, reading and creative writing in very practical ways." Margaret Cobb, Learning and Skills Council basic skills manager, said: "We have a statutory duty to improve literacy and numeracy skills among adults. Offenders and those who are at risk of offending remain one of our priority groups. "They currently feel excluded from the learning process and it is our job to make sure they are re-engaged back into learning."

Don't Eat The Poet - Mark Cantrell
(John Siddique Reading at Bolton Library 7/9/04)
THEY billed him as the 'main dish' of National Poetry Day but it wasn't an invitation to take a bite out of the poor poet, for that John Siddique can be eternally grateful.

This being the early days of poetry events in Bolton, the audience had something of a hungry look to them. They were content to mentally chew on his words and John escaped tasted but unbitten. 'Food' of course, was the theme of this year's National Poetry Day. By the time you read these words the dishes will be cold and the leftovers slightly mouldy but take heart that John Siddique's words are still fresh and vibrant. They keep exceptionally well.

John is currently Ilkley's Resident Poet and you'll recognise him from the cover of this year's ILF brochure. Though I didn't realise that until finally seeing him in the flesh. Glass of free wine in one hand, chapbook in the other, he took it well when I told him. I guess at this stage of a poetry career, you get used to being accosted at signings by sozzled dilettantes.The event was the first time I'd heard anything more than his name and it left me wishing I'd sampled his work and words sooner. He was however, well worth the wait. The man himself took a low key approach. He didn't dominate the stage. He didn't need to. His manner was affable, relaxed, inclusive. This might have been a gathering of his friends and acquaintances rather than a room full of strangers.The poems came alive for themselves. Emotive, funny, or thought provoking, John considered himself as merely the vehicle, or as he put it, he only really started writing when he learned to step out of the poem's way. For me, one his most moving poems touched upon the tragedy of three sisters. The aunts he never knew. Aged 11, 12 and 13, they died of smallpox on the forced march to Pakistan from their home in India. Three innocent souls among many who fertilised the soured birth of two nations. It made me think anew about the human dimensions of the period and the diaspora of refugees it created. And onwards rolling on through the decades to today's upheavals and human tragedies and refugees forced from their homes. And the bile and hate they encounter in the havens they seek. None of this tirade was intended in the poem, I don't think but it is what stirred in my brain as I heard the story. For John, it was an emotional work, but he only gave the occasional sign of any personal feelings. Even here, he was simply trying to tell a story, to give them a voice in the here and now.

After the many events of both formal performances and open mics in Bradford's scene, it was a little strange to taste one on the other side of the Pennines. The gathering took place in the lecture room of Bolton's rather dignified Central Library. To look at the place speaks of 19th Century bourgeois manifest destiny. Someone more knowledgeable of architecture probably wouldn't be so fooled but I was a little surprised to learn it was built in the shadow of darkness in 1939. It's a fine old building, though, especially when you consider the post-apocalyptic architecture that is Bradford's. The newness of such a venture showed through. The library staff who organised the event can take credit all the same for publicising the gig and in organising things well on the night.

John has just turned 40, though he still retains a youthful appearance. "It's strange how it just comes on," he said, as much about the age milestone and the thoughts of family he says it has invoked. Much of his poetry dealt with this theme. In the general, and his own personal experience. When he talked and read of ringing his mother, for instance, many in the audience confessed to sharing his same feelings: that it might be the last time he ever speaks to her, and the heart thudding fear when ever she fails to answer the phone. His mother is an Irish Catholic, his father an Indian Moslem. He referred to himself as a Zen Buddhist. John has been hailed as being at the forefront of a generation of black and Asian literary artists. This might be so but he need no such to stand on stage as an excellent and engaging poet, with stories to tell and thoughts to provoke about life and living in the multi-cultural society that is not Bradford, or Bolton, or Britain -- but the world.
MC

Bolton, 8 October 2004
Copyright (C) October 2004. All Rights Reserved.