Pete Mullineaux’s fifth collection is chock full of ‘strange but true’ surprises: from Plato to pangolins, Microsoft Windows to walruses, foxes to fireworks – offering a serious but at the same time playful exploration of Nature alongside human nature, with a particular focus on ecological concerns and our planet’s vulnerability.
“Reading Pete Mullineaux’s new collection, you want to sing along, lift your banner, shake your fist – dance. More Basho than Beckett – his poetry ranges somewhere between the Green Man and the curious child. A compassionate heart beats in every line.”
Tony Curtis
“He offers us brief respite from an ever darker world. Here are ‘lockdown poems’ in the best possible sense of the term: by turn humorous, intimate, discursive or very short, they direct our attention to small wonders in the fields and woods around us, or to childhood memories recovered thanks to the strange quietness of a stricken world. Whether it’s observing A bullfinch (is) perched/on the edge/of a flower pot, or marvelling at a music teacher’s magic fiddle, it allows us to glimpse that elusive thing called ‘hope’.”
Geraldine Mitchell
“There’s never a dull moment it seems in Mullineaux’s brilliant imagination. Written with a deft touch and with light-hearted humour, these poems offer up a carnival of refreshing perspectives. Mixing memory and desire, We are the Walrus, casts a clever and wry eye on the strange, maddening, and everyday menagerie of life.”
Adam Wyeth
“With his ear well tuned to the rhythm of the farm and pond, Pete Mullineaux appears to honour Emerson’s urge to “adapt to the pace of nature, her secret is patience”, his close attention to animals brings profit to his poems through the imagined timbre of the non-human heart and mind. He writes about the non-human world as if he knows it and has some pact with it, and as if it knows him, too.”
Whitney Smith
Editor, Journal of Wild Culture, USA
In Praise of Idleness
A bullfinch is perched
on the edge
of a flower pot
pecking seeds
from a
dandelion...
I could watch
all day –
one, two, three o’clock...
Swimming with Plato
This is absolutely true – for my first swimming lesson
I went with my mother to a big house in a different part
of the city, climbed several flights of dark stairs, me
wondering, where’s the pool? Maybe the posh lady
opening the door to her apartment liked to high dive –
was looking for a young prodigy to teach, like a character
from my sister’s Bunty comic; or might there be a
descending slide like the one at the public marina?
What the elderly woman (now I could see her in the light)
did have was a table, across which I was asked to lie while
she took my hands, then my feet and showed me the frog
movements of the breaststroke. We didn’t attempt the crawl
and I only went one time (my mother had seen the ad
in the paper, gone on a whim) and, as the man said,
it’s the thought that counts.
Later on I learnt to swim in the sea like everyone
else; but looking back I realise, despite her limitations,
the old woman had whetted my appetite, as well as
opening my mind to how a kitchen table can become
a pool, a flight of stairs might lead to the high board;
how so often we find ourselves making do.
x
Throw it, plant it, exchange it –
a quick peck, or a smacker
lips are essential, tongues optional,
mouth to mouth the general rule, although
cheeks will do –
from a distance you can blow it;
sometimes, during it, you might sigh—
releasing endorphins, oxytocin, dopamine,
serotonin, adrenaline; wet or dry,
always good for saying goodbye,
sealing a promise,
a mark of tenderness on the forehead;
other times it’s just for show – kiss-kiss
or once a year under the mistletoe...
best slow...
a few you’ll never forget;
Rodin sculpted, Klimt painted
but enough of this,
the pucker muscle
is orbicularis oris,
rhymes with bliss...
x
Poems Copyright © Pete Mullineaux 2022
We are the Walrus reviewed by Thriveni C Mysore for Compulsive Reader
February 23, 2024
The poet in dedication page has said ‘for all creatures, great and small’. “All creatures, great and small” receive Pete Mullineaux’s collection of poems, We are the Walrus, with happiness, gratitude, and applause. From the first poem, ‘A pangolin goes into a bar’, in which the poet enters a bar with a pangolin, to the last poem, ‘Interdependence Day’, the reader finds themselves drawn to the poet’s thoughts and play of words.
‘A pangolin goes into a bar’ has myriad things to say about global warming, obscure human tendencies, and a trick to survival by lying low, unseen by humankind:
barman, ‘you must’ve travelled some distance’.
‘yes, quite a journey,’ replies the stranger, ‘the
traffic was crazy, lucky to be still in one piece.’
‘well, aren’t we all globetrotters, I guess you’re
related to those Armadillos?’ The pangolin yawns,
glances around, ‘I like the relaxed ambience here,
any chance of a room? I need a place to lie low.’ (11)
The damage done by humankind towards Nature is revealed in the poem, ‘Summer Time’.
The poet asks,
Do we need a little darkness?
Spinning the wheel further ahead to our day of reckoning –
dire forecasts confirmed: ice gone, sea lapping at throats…
looking back and asking, did we gain or lose that hour? (13)
The nuisance of digital living is well exposed in the poem ‘Verified’:
My computer tells me it’s cloudy, raining,
I look out the window…and gosh, so it is…(14)
These lines send the reader’s senses into a tizzy by showing our dependency on the digital world and the unrealistic living standards that rarely give time to take stock of the natural world around us. It also showcases a new type of neurological disorder that confirms how humans have lost touch with Mother Nature. We need a weather app to know the changes in the sea and seasons. We cannot ‘tell’ the weather as our ancestors did by looking up at the sky! No, not even time.
Harbinger as noun means a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another. A walrus on the shore thousands of miles from its Arctic home is not a good signal, it announces massive disturbance to nature and natural habitat caused by human activity. In search of safe harbor also announces that nothing is ‘safe’ when it comes under human gaze. Hence the opening lines of the poem ‘We are the Walrus’ captures the danger of human activity to nature provoking a train of thoughts.
Harbinger or in search of safe harbor –
a young pup fetches up on our shores
thousands of miles from its Arctic home; (15)
The poet in page 74, under Notes and Thanks has said that ‘We are the Walrus’ relates to the story of an Arctic walrus that turned up in Ireland in 2021, quickly acquiring the nickname ‘Wally’… Wally again as said in page 74 gathered a sizeable fan-base while continuing a roundabout tour of Wales, France, and Spain, before eventually returning to its natural home in 2022. He – Wally is sending a message to humankind on behalf of all other beautiful creations that our actions are causing irreparable distress.
Wally is thus not the wandering Walrus but a messenger (of all things other than human) with a ‘SOS’ message to humankind. Climate change is not just the defining issue or ‘talk of the town’ of the present but is a game changer for the future existence of life. The poet writes that the insensitive avaricious human child is swept off-course destroying the trail and track:
love and loss, foreboding – perhaps one
about a human child in a seal-like skin,
its world swept off-course – searching
the rocks for pattern and meaning in
heaps of tusks, untouched oysters…(15)
And later in the poem:
The poet’s joy in sighting migrating owls as in ‘Long-eared’:
Now it’s four in the morning and I can’t sleep –
heartbeat, breath – wind in the trees; on quieter
nights I hear their wheezing as dawn approaches,
a sound they make before setting off to hunt –
building like an engine…(17)
A similar delight is shared in sighting the charming Earthstar fungus which the poet twins with the insensitive nature of human existence in ‘Earthstars’:
Stars of wonder, stars of darkness!
feeling our dull tread on their ceiling
how they must pity
these poor relations
stumbling above them
blinded by light (19)
The reader worries now as to who is blinded by light, the fungus below the earth or ‘humans’—that deadly force above the earth. Although the keen observation of human habitats is the poet’s forte. In another poem, ‘Boarders’, the poet writes of badgers:
I feel honoured, does this mean
they’ll be staying: cousins to
otter, mink, pine martin, worlverine!
I’ve heard they trample flowers,
will make a golf course of the lawn
rooting for grubs. Perhaps if I learn
their language we can set up a dialogue,
find a compromise over right of way,
borders – discover some natural
accommodation. (20)
If a badger has made a golf course of the lawn while rooting for grubs, humans who sieve the Earth with all their digging, mining, and leveling for ugly benefits, suggests that finding a compromise over right of way, as the poet writes, is challenging. In another poem, ‘Bovine Heaven’, the poet writes:
In the living fields,
three cow generations: calf
mother, grandmother. (22)
The poet aptly observes a ‘Bovine Heaven’. However, it also subtly indicates that such peaceful living is impossible for human beings, be it from a sociological or ecological perspective. It also sets off a train of thought where Earth is not left the same from one generation to the next. The same plaintiveness is felt in ‘Game Pheasant’:
I hear you sometimes at night –
that anguished call announcing yourself
in the safety of the dark, saying
how you are game but not game.
Oh foolish pheasant, oh foolish heart…(27)
‘Interference’ shows the poet’s ideological depth & response to Nature:
Two caterpillars crossing the road…
I use a leaf to pick them up, just as
a car arrives, is forced to slow – faces
through a wet windscreen look unsure
whether to mock or applaud, perhaps
they’ll argue over it later? I carry my
vessel carefully to the verge, continue
walking, mulling over what happened,
this random event, my moment playing
God; might I have disturbed a delicate
balance in our journeys (think butterfly
wings), a couple discovering they aren’t
well-suited, caterpillars carrying a sense
of dislocation in how they got from there
to here…(28)
A well-informed poet is committed to writing. The reader is by now emotionally aware of innumerable lives surrounding that were hitherto unnoticed, deliberately unnoticed. The poem articulates and provokes the reader to look around with a better sense of non-human life.
Poetic observations during and about the pandemic are delicate and agonizing like scratching a fresh wound, be it ‘Covid Conversation’, ‘Uplift’, or ‘Hairdressing’. Other poems, such as ‘Matryoshka’, ‘Dissenter’, ‘A Future Nature Lover Reflects’, and ‘Interdependence Day’ speak to the dangers of climate change. Music, teaching poetry, and the ugliness of politics also find its way into the collection. Some factors that blend artistically in the poetry collection are intense explorations of values and cultural experience, immense respect for human relations, yearnings for music, rhythm, and humor. What charms the reader is the poet’s ability to expose the ugly side of human existence with respect for Mother Nature.
Poetic tradition is the record of a large number of important choices made by individual experiences and respect for freedom of thought. This open liberty makes literature appealing and invites the readers’ participation. The poem, ‘Interdependence Day’, is a capsule of many things: humankind, worthiness and unworthiness, Nature human activities with ugly tendencies, the urgency for behavioral change, the need for changing thought patterns, need of the hour, addressing issues of climate change, saving everything threatened, teaching co-existence, hope and kindness:
………………… Return from
hubris to humus, forgo the pesticides –
agri-genocide, flinch at each plastic spoon,
cruel harpoon – say no more dead whales,
powdered rhino horns, pangolin scales…
Show our visitors we understand the urgency,
that we’ll emerge from this emergency with
competence and empathy –(71)
‘Interdependence Day’ gives hope to readers that mindfulness is the need of the hour. It is not a new fact; it is a newly observed fact that drives home with aplomb.
The climate crisis looms large before us, urging serious action. This is displayed well through the cover page of We are the Walrus. Walrus is looming large on the cover page. There is a little space just enough to write the title and name of poet. Habitat of Walrus is as suffocating as indicated. Nature too is in cramped condition.
Salmon Poetry deserves kudos for powerful cover photography, for the drawing on title page, cover design & typesetting. They are all embellishing the already natural beauty of the poet’s thoughts before bringing it on literary stage.
About the reviewer: Thriveni C Mysore is a science teacher from Karnataka, India. She is locally acknowledged for her critical essays and articles on Philosophy and Education. Her books in Kannada on Philosophy and Science have won State awards. Being actively involved in Environmental Awareness Programs, she holds lectures and presentations for students. Amidst life’s complexities, she finds divine-solace in reading Nature poems.
PRAISE for How to Bake a Planet (Salmon 2016)
‘How to Bake a Planet combines the sombre with the comedic... (in) the singular voice of this poetry — one part sarcasm, one part irony, two parts morbid bluntness — Mullineaux draws on anxieties about a poisoned planet, strangled relationships, and the ever-present ticking of time in an attempt to uncover the smothered sentiments we all keep locked away.’
Brianne Alphonso – Jacket2 (USA)
‘The journey is not without its moments of doubt and the collection is peppered with a series of ecliptic moments reminiscent of Edward Thomas’s “stop at Adlestrop” railway station, TS Eliot’s “moment in and out of time” or Yeats’s Irish Airman’s “in balance with this life, this death.” All this adds up to an intriguing and enriching collection of poetry, one that is certainly worth several visits.’
Des Kenny – Galway Advertiser
‘...the poems here are taut and possess a razor sharp wit...reminiscent of John Clare...probing, beautifully written...a gem...’
Jaki McCarrick – Poetry Ireland Review
‘Each and every poem in How to Bake A Planet relates to the present crisis...the agony of being part of the society that is mutilating Nature...’
Thriveni C Mysore – Plumwood Mountain Journal (Australia)
‘Mullineaux’s strength lies in rallying a collective yearning for a future in harmony with nature and extending beyond our own individual bubbles... It curates a space where we can commune. It makes us feel less alone.’
Florrie Crass – Home-stage.com
PRAISE for Session (Salmon 2011)
'Session captures the wit, inventiveness, grace and connection of player to player, of musician to the natural landscape, of seasonal rituals to the deepest desires of the heart. This remarkable collection belongs in the library of every musician and poetry lover.'
Irish American Music & Dance Association (Minnesota, USA)
'With requisite craft he takes you into a world of observed moments, of habits and rituals, leaving you with a more enriched feeling of the occasion at hand...the power of now in poetic terms...a beautifully written work.'
Trad Connect (Ireland)
‘Session is a beautiful magical book, soaked in waves of musical imagery and sound… written with impeccable craftsmanship, a delight on the ear and begs to be read out loud.’
The Ranting Beast (Ireland)
‘Marvellous…these reflections and resonances are evocative and insightful. Mullineaux crafts genuine and perceptive surprises. More please.’
Orbis Magazine (UK)
‘Mullineaux uses evocative images, insightful observation, humour, playfulness… He is a scrutiniser of intricacies, a watchful eye. Session, by Pete Mullineaux is a gem.’
Irish Music Magazine
‘Absolutely exquisite…the poems could only have been written by someone inside the music.’
Celtic Connections Magazine (Denver, USA )
PRAISE for A Father’s Day (Salmon 2008)
‘Imaginative, innovative, intelligent and poetic…reminds me of the three Liverpool poets, Brian Patten and the others…a fine and beautiful book.’
Pat McMahon – Head of Galway/Mayo Library Services
‘…gorgeous and resonant…with a stunning final blow.’
Ailbhe Darcy – Stinging Fly Magazine, Dublin
‘Mullineaux is a profoundly sensitive poet… while some lines are so grimly funny I’m genuinely jealous I didn’t think of them first.’
Kevin Higgins – Galway Advertiser
‘…vivid verse that will take the reader on a roller coaster of emotions.’
Midwest Review (Oregon, USA)
‘keen-eyed and lyrical…emotional and tender but also humorous, witty and philosophical, this is a brave collection from a wonderful poetic mind.’
Gerard Hanberry
‘Simple, luminous images…Mullineaux’s voice carries lilts of John Cooper-Clarke. There are poems here to make one smile, frown, think; the comedian often gives way to a serious poet indeed. A fine book then, and beautifully produced.’
Fred Johnston – Western Writers Centre
‘These poems sing of deep humanity.’
Geraldine Mills
