Luck is the Hook
As seen:
By Imtiaz Dharker
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Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up a Muslim Calvinist in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales.
Her main themes are drawn from a life of transitions: childhood, exile, journeying, home, displacement, religious strife and terror, and latterly, grief.
She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of her books. Luck Is the Hook is her sixth book from Bloodaxe. In these poems, chance plays a part in finding or losing people and places that are loved: a change in the weather, a trick of language, a bomb that misses its mark, six pomegranate seeds eaten by mistake; all these events cast long shadows and raise questions about who is recording them, about believing, not believing, wanting to believe. A knot undone at Loch Lomond snags over Glasgow, a seal swims in the Clyde, a ghost stalks her quarry at a stepped well, an elephant and a cathedral come face to face on the frozen Thames, a return ticket is thrown into the tide of Humber, strangers wash in.
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This collection of poems, illustrated beautifully by the author, deals with themes of love, loss, identity and displacement. They are very interesting poems – the poet’s varied background influences and life experiences have allowed her to tap a wide range of styles and situations to good effect. ‘Thaw’ is a good example of her impressive powers of description of an emotional event without recourse to complicated references. Some of the mini themes are interestingly developed in a few poems – frozen Thames and broken china as well as the usual unresolved family issues. All in all, a relaxing and thought provoking read; some found that they got a lot more out of the poems on a second reading. ‘The Sound of your Name’ was particularly powerful, invoking the meaning of grief but showing how it could be managed to help the living. It is always fun, in a book, to see where the title will appear. In this one, it came in the very last poem, cleverly tucked between a fish and the land. A book to savour.
