Review of Catherine Walsh, Optic Verve

I have written a review of Irish experimental poet Catherine Walsh’s most recent book, Optic Verve (Shearsman 2009), now online at Todd Swift’s blog site Eyewear. The review suggests that, rather than engaging in wordplay for wordplay’s sake, Walsh actively critiques the way in which language may be employed in the service of dominant hierarchies, and that the pressures that cause language loss and even media censorship are, as Walsh notes, “a crucial determining factor in how people choose to interact socially, what they aspire to attain.” Perhaps, though, Walsh also explores (enacts?) possible ways around such language oppression. But there’s much more to this, so swing over to the review itself (linked above) and check it out.