"Myself and Other Strangers" by Robin Lindsay Wilson
One of the beauties of Robin Lindsay Wilson's poetry is how he brings us into his brief but lingering worlds. He crafts memories from sensation, builds experiences from touch and taste and makes it possible for us to participate as more than readers of words on a page.
His cast of characters interact with us as if we were their family, a close friend, or lover. Our memories are, like his words, glimpses of time that are slightly fragmented and sparked by sensorial connections. As we read about these strangers we create our own memory associations which he encapsulates in hints of sound and temperature which enables us to recall fondly the experience of the others, for example, we personally discover a hunger for more than a life of basic nourishment when we sat in "Jackson Pollock's Pizza Bar".
These are not the core memories that we establish as kids reading stories, but the memories that come from having participated in life. These are the great poems for teenagers who are bored by the textbook poems they are forced to read in school as they will see a hint of life that shows that others do understand what they are going through. For those in their twenties and thirties there is recognition of a recent past while, for the rest of us, there is the pleasant sensation of reliving a life without holding on to the past.
