Review of Australian poet Damen O’Brien’s poem ‘Self portrait of an unreliable narrator’ published in ‘The London Magazine’
I request the readers to read the poem from this link first and then only my review. Thanks. https://thelondonmagazine.org/poetry-self-portrait-as-an-unreliable-narrator-by-damen-obrien/ A poem is often the closest version of a visualization a poet had suddenly or had been weaving within which found a shape one fine morning. In some poems the visualization is too subtle or overshadowed by the craft. But this poem is woven around how a witness can help the police to develop an identikit of a victim. What? Victim to be identified first? Then, what about the perpetrator? When he/she would be charged? Is not all these too vague? How many accused go Scot-free for lack of evidence or on the grounds that the evidence is not accurate/ strong enough to implicate an accused? When the poem clearly highlights this lacuna or grey side of the legal system, it comes out strongly about the incident which had more than one witness or rather, a dozen or more witnesses. A young woman left a place refle...
