Oyster

I'll be honest and say I bought the book for the Scott Hutchison illustrations but the writing drew me in. I love that Michael Pedersen and Scott were good buddies and since Scott's death, Michael has continued to support his friend and grieved semi-publically.

I really loved this collection.

Have you told someone "I love you" with the "mechanical bareness of a warden clamping a car?" Have you felt someone's skin zip around you? Is your moon face full like a Christmas belly? Have you read a poem about a peeping Tom, or about a conversation overheard in the dentist's office? How about a free personality test administered by the Church of Scientology?This is "Oyster," a collection of poems by Scottish poet Michael Pederson.To call this collection jarring doesn't do it justice. In fact, it's difficult to come up with a single word of description that does it justice. Irreverent. Provoking. Odd. Disturbing. Funny. Way off. Way out. Creative. Not-like-anything-you-ever-read-before poems. The 48 individual poems often sound (when read aloud) like what you might imagine a gang of Scottish toughs to sound like, including the dialect. They sound like conversations you might imagine young men having, smoking cigarettes as they stand around barrel fires in shady parts of Glasgow or Edinburgh on a cold night.And then Pederson wallops you with unexpected tenderness, like in "When Carla Moves Out."When Carla Moved OutWithout you I have no butter,no shampoo, no part of methat you make happen, emptyshelves, cupboards bare, a soupof snot for breakfast, a bowlingball belly. I am glad you tookthe silk pillowcase I bought youfrom John Lewis. I am sad you leftflamingo slippers I ordered online- I had to chuck them out.Their feathers thinned, I grewtired of sniffing them, my feetwere too bulky. When you movedout I found another cornerof the room had gottoo big for its boots, I stopped smellingof rain and red playdough.It's the tenderness of loss, of remorse, articulated first in the loss of things (butter, shampoo, empty shelves, a silk pillowcase). It's about the loss of things remaining, like old flamingo slippers falling apart from handling because they're all that's left to touch. It's about a home shared that becomes too big room by room.Based in Edinburgh, Pederson has received a number of prizes and fellowships, including a Cove Park Residency, the John Mather Trust Rising Star of Literature Award in 2014, and the 2015 Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. He has previously published a poetry collection, "Play with Me" (2013), and served as editor and contributor for two poetry anthologies, both published in 2015 - "#Untitledone: New! Reekie! and "#Untitledtwo: New! Reekie!." The illustrator for "Oyster" is Scott Hutchinson, the front man for the Scottish indie band Frightened Rabbit."Oyster "is a collection of poems about lives tethered and untethered, of trying to hold things together while you feel they're coming apart. When you're finished reading, you're oddly moved. And moved, oddly.