Ghost Catcher by Stephen Guppy

Ghost Catcher Reviews

• 
  Philip Gordon

  I feel vastly unqualified to evaluate any collection of poetry published by my instructor, but given that it's one of his earliest publications and stands as a work on its own regardless, I figured I may as well express my thoughts on it.
  
  Reading through the poems in this collection, it's interesting to see such a consistent voice and focus emerge—there's a repetition of technique and orchestration of given subject material that felt a bit trying as I read through more poems. Maybe my perception is coloured by a recent preference towards cathartic expression in poetry, but the primary demonstration of image and language usage within that imagery leave me with a sort of vaguely empty feeling after each poem. I want more emotion, more impact to come out of them—as is, the poems are creative descriptions, but there's no revelation with each one, or in very few, something considerably powerful to make the experience of reading them worthwhile.
  
  The poems themselves are alright—'Houdini' particularly stands out as having a revelatory line or two that made me sit up and think—but the book seems to be more of a cohesive collection about the notion of a filtered experience rather than the individual poems themselves. I can see where the preference might be, and I respect it, but it's not the type of poetry I find most valuable.
  
  Now, let's hope Stephen doesn't read this and mark me down as a result : >