Books by Helen Carr
a big mess of books
books heaped and piled
Vita Sackville West’s Garden Book
Colette My Mother’s House
A Modern Herbal, Food for Free
The Paintings of Aneurin Jones
seed catalogues, a bottle of organic juice
shelves of books horizontal, vertical
the RHS on Roses, Adrian Mole
Gertrude Jekyll on the sofa’s arm
Anne Tyler on a hand carved stool
Cat asleep upon the Geiriadur Mawr
teacup on Japanese Design
papers slewed across piano lid, pens
a pile of letters on an ancient wooden chair
a list of field names and their origins
books teetering on the piano top Ackroyd on Blake
ragged sheet music in a heap
painting of a young girl in the primitive style
To the Lighthouse on the fire guard, the RHS on Pruning below a cup of tea
O’Brien on the windowsill, Murdoch on the floor
A chess set balanced on a hand thrown bowl
A jug of fading flowers,
School work spilling from a rucksack on the door
Harris tweed hanging from a hook
Seed packets on the shorter OED
and on the mantelpiece, Rebecca West,
The Fountain Overflows.
This is a particularly good demonstration of the power of accumulated detail, detail literally piled on top of detail. It also shows how, for some kinds of writing, there no need for traditional sentences or even verbs. And there is structure in the apparent randomness of the piece. Each piece of information has relevance and helps to build up the image of the person or people who inhabit the room. Clearly, there an interest in gardening, in things Welsh, in literature of the twentieth century. And, just when I was thinking of the couple who lived in the room as quite old, we get the surprise of the ‘school work’ (or is one of the residents a teacher?). All in all, an excellent interpretation of the exercise.