Poetry, said Paul Muldoon, should ‘knock one slightly to the side of one’s life, if only for an instant’. Over the course of this hour the audience was buffeted with a string of visceral, earthy images from both his new collection, ‘Maggot’, and beyond. Muldoon swayed around the stage like an octopus shifting its weight from tentacle to tentacle, covering subjects such as roadside shrines and the Cuban Missile crisis with an intensity that sucked his listeners in and soaked them fully in the dark and inky potency of his words. For an hour we were in Muldoon’s world; one where innocence is overwhelmed by the physicality and imminence of death by fleshy, maggot-like symbols.
Scottishpower Studio Theatre, 20 Aug, 7.00pm (8.00pm), £10, eibfpp28.
[sj]
Sections: by Samuel Johnston - ED2011 Book Reviews | Tags: Edinburgh International Book Festival, Paul Muldoon
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