A poetry collection by a former professional skateboarder and published by one of my favourite indie publishers. Rarely do niche interests allign so neatly.
Todd's other career has been as a luxury travel writer, and he draws on both sets of experience here, with one foot in the nowhere spaces and repurposed urban environments where skateboarding grows like a weed through the concrete and one foot in the world of high-end hotels. Both careers are nomadic, and there is also an eye cast homeward, to the post-industrial north of England where Todd grew up, and London and the South East where he lives and works.
At times he is specific, focussed on the here and now. Others he takes a panoramic view, sweeping across landscapes or even tipping into a kalidoscope with one place blurring into another. He is aware too of location as a palimpsest: its identity written and rewritten.
In interview, Todd speaks about an initial reluctance to write about skating in his poetry. I understand the reticence: on the surface they seem to belong in very different worlds. However, both disciplines involve looking at the world sideways and seeing possibility. And poetry benefits when it's voices speak from a wide range of experiences, particularly when they have their own resevoir of language and imagery to draw on. Artistic concerns aside, this book came to my attention not through browsing the library, or in the review pages of a literary magazine, but through a targeted Facebook ad from an online skateshop. If Todd had not decided to cross the streams in this way, I would not have found him. Perhaps his decision will bring more readers to ride through the halls of poetry when the grown-ups aren't looking.
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