Changeling, Thomas Sharp (Mundi Fictor), 2022

The Poetry Of It All, 2022 £250.00 (unique, hand-annotated, marginalia edition)

‘The Most Important Poem of the Aeon’

Tom Sharp, here writing as Mundi Fictor, has had more poetry pamphlet publications OPOI-reviewed on Sphinx than any other writer (see end of review for list).

He’s a remarkable, self-driven creator, working outside the usual-suspect groups, with enormous investment of time and talent.

Often the endorsers of poetry publications make gigantic claims. This is the only one I have read that declared it was the ‘most important poem of the aeon’, a ‘poem in three acts’. It may be precisely that.

But I’ve never known how important poems are, not even poems that generations of readers have agreed are important. All I know is how important they are to me. (And perhaps I can infer how important they may have been to their creator.)

But importance in the wider world is always conferred by others, keepers of gates, and prize-givers.

Do I understand Changeling? No, not really. I get that it’s about ego. I can see that ego also involves the abyss (universal symbol).

I get the five pages in square frames. They say things I can relate to, like, ‘No man can communicate / even the simplest thought / to any other man / in any full and accurate sense.’

There’s much else I don’t begin to understand, but admire. The writing flashes and sparkles. It’s imaginative and resonant.

I like some bits:

Succumbing to cruelty is a kind of ego too. Why are you here?

I dislike some bits (I’m not fond of punctuation-less language clusters, even when they glitter):

As we climax my haircurls into horncurls nosesplits nose splits tiny torn nail my pupils eyes of needles narrow.

And yet throughout, there is a quick and agile intelligence. Also the work looks gorgeous and has no endorsements from anybody except the author, with tongue in cheek. Yeay!

‘The Sham has exactly the same chance / as the real,’ declares Mundi Fictor. I do not think the author is a sham.