David Selzer was born in London in 1942 but has lived in Chester for most of his life. He began writing poems when he was 14. His collection, ’Elsewhere’, edited by Harry Chambers and published by E.J. Morten in 1973, was one of the first in the Peterloo Poets Series. He is an Eric Gregory Award and Felicia Hemans Prize winner.
After some thir
ty years in education, as a teacher and adviser, mostly for Cheshire County Council, David has since 2001 written four screenplays and two stage plays. One of the latter, ‘Hear the Drums’, earned him a prize in the 2009 Sussex Playwrights Club full length play competition. He has also begun work on two novellas and continues to write poems, which he has published on his website, listed on our Links page, since its launch in 2009.
David's first publication with Armadillo Central, a collection of 20 original poems, all about people, entitled A Jar of Stickebacks, features in the Poetry section of the shop.
A JAR OF STICKLEBACKS
REVIEWS:
April 2012:
I love this poet. He renders the ordinary extraordinary. The mundane becomes sacred. The emotion is so intense in such a quiet way and his clarity never misses a beat.
Jane Barthès, Artist
February 2012:
"He is very good indeed. I have read 4 and am too full for more at the moment. Blooming '...with her longed for future...'"
Arthur Smith, comedian
For me, reading a poetry collection by a single poet can become a highly intimate affair. You are given direct access to the thought processes and feelings of the creator. Sometimes this peep into the simplest or most intimate moments or thoughts leaves you feeling like a voyeur, stalking through the mundane made majestic and the passionate bottled. Sometimes it is so raw... read more: Gav & Fortom's Posterous
Gav Cross, blogger
'What intelligent writing! 'A Jar of Sticklebacks' proves that the phrase 'intellectual poetry' isn't an oxymoron. The verse flows deceptively smoothly: every few lines, I stopped to relish a particular image or turn of phrase. Like the singing Miller of Dee, David's work is both lyrical and disrespectful. I'm delighted to have discovered this talented poet.'
Jane Bailey Bain, Author of 'LifeWorks'
A Jar of Sticklebacks presents a portrait of the last hundred years through the vision of its writer, whose presence is rooted in his beloved Hoole (a part of Chester). This is the century covered by his own life, and the lives of his parents and grandparents, whose dramatic times he briefly shared but whose survival in the face of war and revolution persistently and movingly intrude on the world that the poems evoke.
History goes beyond recollection and much of David’s work reawakes the pasts of the worlds and places that his own life has visited. His awareness of the role these have had in shaping everything he knows is everywhere – most obviously in A Short History, and Natural Selection, but the tread of the past is usually to be heard. Even in the poems reflecting his recent visits to South Africa, you can hear the sound of colonial Africa’s bones rattling in the townships of Soweto.
The poem of the title is the present end to a journey evoked by the majority of poems. The jar in question is broken, and the fish’s survival is in doubt, but not the memories, hopes and dreams that they come to represent. The poem itself explores David’s memories of his grandfather, and his knowledge of his father (who died in Africa, with David and his Mother left at home). Its dedication to his granddaughter, perfectly describes a man for whom love and wisdom have helped transform his outlook on a world that has seen conflict and disillusionment, but where hope and delight still triumph.
The natural world continues unabated in the background for most of the poems – most notably by his continued love and observation for birds. Robins, gulls, swallows, and buzzards are just some of the avian characters that swoop and nest in the poetry. They represent for a town dweller an obvious reminder of nature beyond a bypass (and David has a poem about one of these too), but they also bring a reminder of distant lands and lives that is both human and non-human – they happily nest in skulls and, elsewhere, menacingly threaten a quiet meal of fish and chips.
David’s gift is for reflection and evocation – it is often photographic in its quality (and his book is well illustrated by the photographs taken by Sylvia his wife). You’ll see this in the almost filmic visions of Soweto, and obviously in Looking for Puffins, where the composition of a photo brings together his family, both as a picture, and a portrait of its inner life.
I have lived with David’s poetry for nearly 40 years, and have looked to see a collection such as these for most of that time. His inspiration for living and for others breathes through his writing for anyone who is not lucky enough to know him!
J A Huddart, Poet
