Book of Split Cities

9781901538229

1901538222

Poetry. Now, (1999), confronting this heroic Legend, pitching his voice(s) against an increasingly dystopian terrain, Griffiths finds that London has been cleaved, divided against herself, split like the hemispheres of the cerebellum. 'Something organic has snapped.' Griffiths projects privileged versions of urban experience (courtly pageants) against a system that is evidently in terminal decline: 'the norm is wrong'. High-angle surveillance sweeps reveal the extent of the carnage. The poet exploits a system of hyphens, derived from earlier models, praise songs, to bond together warring elements: 'burnt bananna-eyed fruit groups', 'finger-suburbs', 'sleep-owl faces'. He works his apostrophes like dockers' hooks, hacking out unnecessary vowels, scoring the text, straining for optimum pace and expression. Through momentum, he achieves prophetic instability -- Iain Sinclair.