by Jay Rafferty
A Chapbook about Nothing, a insightful chapbook from Close to the Bone Publishing, begins with a quote from Bruce Springsteen and when reading these poems all I could think is “Goddamn the Boss would be jealous of this!” Despite it’s seventy-four pages, Scott Cumming’s collection never feels over-wrought or dense, in truth no poem overstays it’s welcome, some even leave before you’d want them too.
This collection takes a serious look at the unwarranted violence that surrounds us daily, always just beyond reach, never quiet touching the sides and therefore {naturally} seemingly unreal. In poems like ‘D.C/Dad’ or ‘Violence in Real Life’ Cumming’s speaker is beyond the harm, beyond the trauma that surrounds them (if only by a few steps or their father’s “Baldy Head.”) But where the Lyric I of this collection avoids the physical threat in these poems, internally they are haunted by the metaphysical pains of just living. ‘To be Written Upon Waking’ speaks of imposter syndrome like it was a winter wind that could cut to the heart of you. Likewise, ‘Playlist’ portrays a desire to indulge one’s self-loathing and depression “I want Feeling Beat Up// Feeling spat out.” The idiom If you didn’t laugh, you’d cry comes to mind when one looks at this collection as a whole. Cumming does not dwell on the melancholy, he distracts us, lures us away from the what could be serious mental turmoil and provides a reader instead with apathetic offerings, tinged with a dark humour, pop-culture galore and a cynicism that Rick Sanchez would be proud of.
If I may amend a quote from the Irish playwright Brendan Behan: “It is not that the Irish [and Scottish] are cynical. It’s rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.” No fictional heroes or villains, no celebrity icons mentioned in this book escape lionized. Cumming puts Bob Dylan on X-Factor, he calls the Avengers morons and traces the lineage of Jerry Smith to the jaundiced inhabitants of Springfield. It’s a millennial milieu all around.
Comparisons to Charles Bukowski or Philip Larkin would be a disservice to these poems, although one might be tempted to make them. What this Scottish poet has created here is something entirely of his own accord, despite his influences. For every brutal act of ‘Violence in Real Life,’ he gives us a ‘Universal Truth’ or (to my delight) a love note to a Marvel Funko-pop. Far from being A Chapbook about Nothing this is a chapbook about everything.
A Chapbook about Nothing is available on Amazon and Scott Cumming can be found on Twitter @tummidge
Jay Rafferty is an uncle, an Irishman and an eejit. He’s the Social Media Manager for Sage Cigarettes Magazine and a Best of the Net Nominee. His debut chapbook Holy Things is forthcoming in Spring 2022 and you can read his other poems in several journals including Lights on the Horizon and Daily Drunk Magazine. When not playing games of pool he, sometimes, writes stuff. You can follow him on Twitter @Atlas_Snow.
