In ‘Damage’, an early poem by Banks, for instance, lines like: For Banks and MacLeod, on the other hand, the guiding spirit is undoubtedly T.S. Holdstock and Kilworth, for instance, are both clearly influenced by poets like Whitman, Yeats and Ted Hughes, and the poets of the First World War, influences that would have been obvious even if Kilworth hadn’t pointed it out in his preface. Lifelong friends, constantly exchanging ideas, commenting on each other’s work, sharing tastes, it would be strange indeed if similarities didn’t emerge in their poetry. There are, not surprisingly, similarities between the two pairs of writers. And Robert Holdstock ended his last novel, Avilion, with four poems, all of which are included here. Ken MacLeod has had several of his poems published in various places, including one, ‘Erosion’ (which is included here), incorporated into his novel Intrusion. Another poem, ‘Feu de Joie’, was the starting point for his novel A Song of Stone, though for some reason he excluded that poem from this collection.

Banks had used odd lines from his poetry as song lyrics in Espedair Street, and Use of Weapons begins and ends with poems, both of which are included here. Not that the poetic endeavours of the other three were completely unknown. Though only Garry Kilworth, easily the best of the four poets on display, has previously had a collection published, Tree Messiah (Envoi Poets, 1985), some of the contents of which are reprinted here. Their colleagues, on the other hand, are both life-long poets, and it shows. Robert Holdstock, on the other hand, only began writing poetry late in life, and his work was still showing signs of maturing when he died. Most of the poems collected here were written between 19, thereafter they became more intermittent and ceased finally in 1981 (the year, perhaps coincidentally, that he began work on The Wasp Factory). Iain Banks began writing poetry while at school. These are, therefore, the last published works of Robert Holdstock and Iain Banks. The famous author dies, suddenly and far too young, and the friend completes the task of collecting their poetry and getting it published. At one point the two friends start to talk, perhaps half facetiously, about getting these poems published. A famous author, whose fiction has changed the nature of a genre, writes poetry in private which he exchanges with a friend and fellow author who also happens to write poetry. There is a poignant congruence in the appearance of these two books.

I’ve been meaning to get back to using this blog as a resource where I can keep as much of my writing as possible online, so let’s start with this review of Poems, Peoms & Other Atrocities by Garry Kilworth & Robert Holdstock, and Poems by Iain Banks & Ken MacLeod, which first appeared in Foundation 122, December 2015.