The Elephant Tests

By Matt Merritt

The Elephant Tests, the third collection of poems from Matt Merritt, takes sheer delight in the full possibilities of language in this study of birds and natural history, travel, personal and universal memory, and even of the occasional elephant too. In the process, it captures the quiet wonder of the fleeting moments that amaze, puzzle and trouble us.
Eco-poetry and exploration are met perfectly with myths and epiphanies; the wide, wild world outside is precisely spoken for, just a moment before taking flight or merging into dusk. This is poetry unafraid of new territories; Matt Merritt pushes out the boundaries of each poem without ever once losing the humour, grace and gentle melancholy at their heart.
"A poet's talent follows no maps. Insight, rueful humour and a perfectly tuned ear make Matt Merritt's The Elephant Tests an exceptional collection, whose poems absorb and startle. Here are elephants, benign or brooding, hares, 'sharp against the last sun', humans, who 'lie and wait for the ceiling rose to bloom', birds, imagined and real: 'Rain bird (see also yarrow, yappingale, yaffle)'. Each poem reveals its own richness: 'and the last thing you see / will be the last thing you ever expected.'"

Alison Brackenbury
"I've become a pretty ardent Matt Merritt fan in recent years. A more observant and articulate poet is hard to imagine. The Elephant Tests is at least as strong as its two predecessors, whilst also being thematically and stylistically his most ambitious and varied book to date."

Rory Waterman
"The Elephant Tests shows a fully mature poet who continues to explore the relationship between verse and his life. Merritt accompanies us on a poetic journey that forces us to reflect on ever-growing uncertainties."

Matthew Stewart, Rogue Strands
"There's a great variety of tone and style here, though; much wider than is sometimes found in smaller press publications, more than I have room to discuss here – a couple of the Elephant poems, for example, which drew me to this collection, are great fun whilst also using the metaphor to discuss worth and memory. These are poems of acute observation that enjoy playing with language, both sound and meaning, and I very much enjoyed reading them."

Rosemary Badcoe, Antiphon
Matt Merritt is a poet and wildlife journalist. His previous collections are hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica (Nine Arches, 2010), Troy Town (2008) and the pamphlet Making The Most Of The Light (2005). He reviews poetry for Magma, New Walk, Under the Radar and Sphinx, and is co-editor of Poets on Fire. He lives near Leicester.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nine Arches Press
• Release date: Jul 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781911027560

Book preview

SUNDAYS IN MAY

Something should be starting. While you breakfast

slowly on the leavings of the week, watching

fledglings scream their demands across the lawn,

the seeds of an idea should be reaching

for the surface. Watching trees making free

with their confetti, your heart should be surrendering

to the unlearned salmon-leaps of love. You should

be seeing clouds not as rain but as the opening

of a wide, white country before astonished eyes.

Your song should be earning the blackbird’s praise.

Walking that avenue into town, passing students

dragging bags to the laundry, revision notes tucked

inside the NME, you should be moving

towards something that has waited for you

all your life. If it is to happen,

here among the ice-cream vans,

the two-for-ones and the pavement tables,

it’s as well that it would happen soon.

MAGNETITE

We are not so much of the earth, even,

as the most microscopic jewel-toothed chiton,

the single-minded sperm whale, the Atlantic salmon.

Even the birds. Especially the birds.

They are tethered by the same element

that silvers the backs of their eyes, lodestones that stud

their skulls, or spines, while we wander song-lines, desire-lines,

remake maps, charts, the base metal of our words.

BIRDS WE DIDN’T SEE

Newleafturner

Immaculate Start

Habitual Honeyeater

Extravagant Lark

Infallible Liecatcher

Spangled Coquette

Laughing Umbrellabird

Sunbitten Sunbittern

Variegated Brilliant

Euphoric Euphonia

Indefinite Stint

Incandescent Sunangel

Paradise Kite

DESIRE LINES

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Drought or drench draw them more clearly,

teach the secret geometry of hidden

or half-arsed purpose. For each

ribbon of rained-on intent,

tramped-down meander of resolve

that hardens into lane or jitty,

or even city street, another ten

remain as freehand scrawls, scribbles

at best, the chords and tangents

of long-forgotten arcs. A season’s growth

softens edges, a work-crew and a one-off budget

tame the snake in the grass, or divide