CTRL / ALT / DELETE: Natasha Helen Crudden Poetry Review
Can’t we all identify as black sheep occasionally?
Don’t we occasionally vent at, or declare our love for,
those who don’t deserve it?
Do we not engage in retail therapy?
Haven’t we all stayed home instead of going to parties
occasionally, due to social anxiety?
Well then, Natasha Helen Crudden wants to have a quick – and
powerfully eloquent – word in your ear. Much of this poetry is directed at
persons. These subjects are rarely the general reader. The power of much of the
work, however, lies in taking many of her admonitions, tributes, compliments
and criticisms personally. The beauty of much of this talented poet’s work is
in the identifiable.
Trigger Warning,
for instance, is directed at a (probable) female whose “killer Achilles heels”
and “summer wardrobe of disorders” provide validation. It transpires that this
subject doesn’t have “all that much to say”, falling back on trigger warnings
as an excuse to retreat after causing the mayhem typical of somebody with (what
might be diagnosed as – and this is just this reviewer’s guess) borderline
personality disorder.
Her Christopher Robin
character similarly retreats, a socially incapacitated individual refusing to
engage in life’s challenges. Little
Problem showcases the “flaccid ego” of a man who has probable transference
issues. A Long Way to Fall takes
issue with civil service bureaucracy with impressive skill.
There are a number of far more positive pieces here too –
what could be considered love poems. And Crudden is self-critical elsewhere.
In Cailin Gan Ainm
(Irish for Girl Without a Name), the poet declares herself a factory reject,
claiming she scuffed her “party shoes jumping the fence”. A clear-cut case of
gate-crashing, it’s not difficult to see how Crudden – whose work is in many
respects cutting edge – could regard herself as avant-garde or the outsider
artist, or at least pen a poem identifying herself as such. Can’t we all
identify as black sheep occasionally?
Highly recommended work from a rising star.
Natasha Helen Crudden’s CTRL / ALT / DELETE is available
here:
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