Being With Me Will
Help You Learn
Thomas McColl. Listen Softly London, $14 (78p) ISBN: 978-0993535307
In his book
of poems Being With Me Will Help You
Learn, Thomas McColl plunges head first into a strange world that seems so
much like our own yet entirely nuanced. The title itself is slightly
foreboding, as if what we, as readers, are about the read will change us in
some profound way, some way that will fundamentally change the way we perceive
and react to things in our lives. McColl uses cunning and smart language to
create these quasi-worlds that mirror our own. He does this, all the while lacing
his poems with dark humor. It’s a kind of make-believe that isn’t quite made
up.
Many of
McColl’s poems read satirical. Among these poems is “A Warning to All EC
Pedestrians” where a simple practice of walking across the street turns into a
humorous yet sinister act. McColl uses this sense of parallelism to change the
dynamic between cars and pedestrians. He writes,
Pedestrians planning to cross the
road
must have, as standard,
an air bag beneath their clothes
McColl has switched attributes, such as airbags, license
plates, and speed limits, from cars to pedestrians. He has created this
universe where there are still vehicles and people, yet their roles and responsibilities
have swapped.
He continues his brand of humor in “The
Nose Picker Public Enemy Number 1”. The title embodies much of the poem—nose
pickers are deemed dangerous criminals who must be apprehended and
incarcerated. McColl takes an unhygienic habit and gives it the kind of gravity
and severity of someone who has committed a great crime, such as murder. The
narrator of the poem describes the scene of a man being dragged into the street
by police because he picked his nose. The first stanza ends with,
he was surrounded and restrained
while forensic experts, quickly on the scene, still putting on their rubber
gloves as they jumped from the back of their van, wiped his finger clean of
mucus.
While seemingly laughable and ironic, there is unease within
McColl’s words. The severity of the actions taken against this young man make
the reader contemplate the marriage of the action and punishment.
As the collection progresses, McColl’s
poems become increasingly profound. Within “In Search of Pedestrianland”,
McColl uses the classic tale of The
Wizard of Oz as a lens through which to view ecological or even societal questions.
The poem focuses on Dorothy who dreams of “Pedestrianland”, a place without
cars, engines, or anything to impede the way of pedestrians. The wicked witch
in this poem boils hot tar in her cauldron to pave new roads for cars which are
driven by demons. He writes,
The only dreamer left on Earth is
Dorothy:
While the
scarecrow’s off to see the wizard,
who runs a
driving school on Baker Street,
Dorothy
makes do with the Good Fairy’s magic boots,
and lives inside her head
in fantasy Pedestrianland,
where the cars and motorbikes she
hates
are banned.
Again, McColl brings about this interesting relationship
with pedestrians and vehicles. Is he drawing attention to the environmental
destruction done by gasoline emissions and the paving of roads? Or is he once again exploring the difficult
and dangerous relationship between pedestrians and vehicles?
One of
McColl’s most striking poems is “Robot”. As the title proclaims, it is a
narrator who is presumably a robot, talking about certain aspects of being a
piece of machinery. Again, what might sound light hearted and whimsical turns
into an introspective view of human sadness.
McColl writes,
I constantly malfunction:
Sometimes I
de-activate,
My head
slumps,
Will remain
like this for minutes at a time,
At work, in the street, alone in my
bed-sit.
Oil constantly seeps through my
eyes,
And down my face…
He uses the concept of the robot as a vehicle to discuss personal
dysfunction—he digs deep into the human psyche and personal dissatisfaction.
Likening oil to tears illustrates this idea that we’re all human, despite our
best efforts to hide the fact. It is a kind of imagery that brings the
intangible feelings that many people have to endure on a daily basis into much
more visual space.
Much of
McColl’s poetry has hidden meaning, relating back to the kind of struggles
humans endure day to day. He draws upon the small seemingly insignificant
things and creates a whole new world in each poem. McColl’s use of smart,
intelligent language, compounded with his attention for detail, allows him to
construct poems through which we can examine ourselves and the world we call
home. (January 2016)
Purchase Being With Me
Will Help You Learn HERE.
Reviewer bio: Morgan Leigh Plessner is an English Major and
Photo Minor at the University of New Hampshire.
