Review: One Cloud Away from the Sky

Andrew Rudd

82pp, £7.99, Cheshire County Council (2007)

By Tom Jenks

The cover of One Cloud Away from the Sky, the debut collection by Andrew Rudd, put me in mind of a prayer book. This is apt, for a quiet sense of faith suffuses it.  Many of the poems could also be described as devotional, but their votive objects are not icons or relics, rather the things around us: honeysuckle, dishwashers, bracken, roads, marmalade cats. Wittgenstein famously argued that the sense of the world must lie outside the world, but for Andrew Rudd the meaning of the world lies very much in the world. He has an excellent eye and a way of writing which lends what it rests upon physicality but also a quality of immanence. The beautiful fourth stanza of Footnotes 5 exemplifies this blend of quotidian and miraculous:

            Came back. A humming

            farmyard, a green lane.

            The hedge burst into finches.

This collection is remarkably consistent. Where many volumes are greatest hits collections, this is a suite with each poem working discretely but also displaying an awareness of others around it. The level of craftsmanship, control and precision exhibited here is admirable. Andrew Rudd was Cheshire Poet Laureate in 2006 and on the evidence of this collection, this was a role that suited him. The mastery of technique and awareness of form demonstrated in these eighty-two pages suggest a serious and scholarly practitioner, someone with a storehouse of knowledge for others to share. I particularly enjoyed Jane Eyre Variations, with its stylistic nod towards Stevens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

In addition to Stevens, one can also feel the presence of R.S. Thomas, a sympathy which the writer makes explicit in On the A488, where he finds himself driving behind the Welsh poet, who is himself driving a black Austin, doing a “steady thirty”. I loved the sense of ancestry, inheritance and connection this poem suggested. Thomas assumes the role of stern presiding spirit, reaching in to turn off the radio lest it disrupt contemplation and concentration.

Andrew Rudd’s poetry leaves one, in the very best sense of the word, satisfied. After reading this collection I felt that the world was a more interesting and better place than I had imagined. It made me want to look again, think more deeply, seek structure and harmony. This book has a nourishing quality, not the sugar rush of a bar of chocolate bolted down between bus stops, but a well cooked meal to be eaten slowly, thoughtfully and appreciatively.  It reminded me that poetry doesn’t need to grab your lapels and shout in your face, but can instead speak gently, encouraging you to lean forward and listen. I will close with my favourite poem, which, like its subject, is happy to do just that.

            God

            doesn’t have to knock

            use the front door key

            doesn’t check how clean the house is

            knows how to use the kettle

            and where the spoons go

            washes up

            is content to sit

            and chat about issues

            of no importance

            or just be quiet

To read more about Andrew Rudd, including information about how to purchase a copy of One Cloud Away from the Sky, click here.