Verbs, verbs, verbs, Declan Ryan's Fighters, Losers

At first sight, Declan Ryan’s second pamphlet, Fighters, Losers (New Walk Editions, 2019) displays many of the technical qualities that made his first Faber New Poets chapbook stand out. Both collections share the capacity for serving up delicately structured narratives, keen humanity and linguistic playfulness. However, Fighters, Losers brings a stronger sense of confidence in his poetic effects to the table, and thus a lighter touch.

In these nine poems about boxing, Ryan employs reportage, avoiding subjective adjectives and implicit judgement, as in the following extract from the pamphlet’s opening poem, The Resurrection of Diego ’Chico’ Corrales:

…He’s just been knocked down for a second time,

in this tenth round, by José Luis Castillo,

but now he’s standing up, and the fight resuming.

He’s starting to open up

and land heavy shots: a right cross moves Castillo,

who smiles, which means he’s hurt…

Accumulated observation here is mainly achieved through the use of verbs, as in the non-defining relative clause (’who smiles’), while the narrative is driven forward via a shift from the present perfect to the present continuous tense, which also lends additional immediacy.

As the poem moves on, it also displays certain other deft features that are common to several pieces in the collection, as in the opening lines to the fourth stanza:

…Two years from tonight, Corrales will lie dead

on the Fort Apache Road in Las Vegas,

his Suzuki motorcycle in component parts,

his license expired, his blood three times the legal limit…

Not only do these lines crank up their subtle power through the layering of reported details alongside those afore-mentioned supercharged verbs, but this stanza immediately announces a change in narrative gear in its first line via the sudden use of the future tense.

Ryan employs this technique of shifting from the present to the future tense to excellent effect throughout his pamphlet, using it as an axis within the poem, a pivotal point at which everything changes. The previous lines are immediately thrown into startling, fresh relief, while the following lines are projected forward.

Fighters, Losers demonstrates that Declan Ryan has learned to trust his readers and his own skill in generating huge empathy via restraint, juxtaposition of details and a masterclass in the manipulation of verbs, verbs, verbs. His writing in these poems therefore becomes emotionally resonant far beyond any mere portrayal of individual boxers or specific moments in sport. I very much recommend this chapbook to all readers, especially to those who might think a bunch of poems about boxing cannot move them.