A. Flores: The Vortex Years: by Oliver Littlegray
Spring heralds the arrival of longer days and warmer weather and the release of Vortex, the annual publication from the University of Winchester’s Creative and Professional writing students. Although we are all keen for a new season we should not be too quick to dismiss the previous one. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to take a nostalgic backwards glance at Vortex pre-2019 and revisit the work of one the magazine’s frequent contributors: A. Flores. Flores’ poems featured in the magazine for three consecutive issues between 2014 and 2016, providing an arresting perspective on the human condition. Flores’ direct approach is not for the faint hearted with explicit content and urban colloquialisms as standard.
2014 was a strong debut with Buying Razors and Pull Out. No punches are pulled with these brutal poems on the subjects of sex and violence.
Buying Razors is a description of gang violence in an impoverished area. The disturbing voice of the narrator in this piece is shown through the use of strong language and vibrant imagery. The piece starts clearly but safely enough.
“Red fire hydrant red like
Corner store rosariers in bling grilled
Baby perm carry out bags
No eatin’ tonight no eatin’ tonight”
Then only a few lines later it become mocking and confrontational “no one reads anymore din’cha know”. The voice using sarcasm and slang to illustrate the assumed lack of understanding of the reader with aggressive similes to emphasise the point. An added sense of personification uses word format in an interesting and provocative way with the text snaking and slithering across the page, shouting out its message in an angry exhalation.
When the voice is angry expletives punctuate the text with bold, capital letters that punch the message home. The three huffs grow in size and thickness, creating a feeling of threat and tension that almost reach out of the page. Perhaps the most impressive is the finale, the last breathes of the character beginning to waver and space out before finally they blank out.
Pull Out is a violent, sexual piece and it makes no attempt to hide it. Once again, direct impact is achieved through the use of strong, aggressive language delivered in a simple rhyme scheme that gives it the short, sharp shock of a physical assault.
The steady flow of the rhymes provide a flow that almost challenges the reader to stop, to pull out of the poem before the end. The explicit language is violent and the ‘shriek and freak’ effective and impactful. The sing-song effect allows for such controversial images to appear, initially, less shocking and it is only after they have been read that the full, shocking impact of the words hit the reader. The direct address to the reader questions their intentions, their morality, their humanity.
Flores returned the following year with the same gusto for violence with another duo, I said Goddam and The River Red. The River Red challenges taboo in its selfish, sexual aggression. Its descriptions juxtapose the blunt violence with descriptive, almost flowery language.
“On the wrung-dry neck of the curdle creek
Where the angels seep their menstrual gel
Our boots suck down at our knees and froth at the
Flotsam dead
Sifting shifting like an ocean spray
About the bay of the river muck.”
In a similar way that Pull Out uses a simple rhyme scheme to give explicit language impact, the The River Red mixes natural, earthy descriptions with violent, vivid ones to make the latter stand out more.
In her final year, Flores submitted Elle sung du Nez in the 2016 edition. Lacking the brutal goriness of earlier work, Elle sung du Nez comes into its own with the familiar use of spacing to catch the reader’s eye and bring the words to life as they move across the page. Together with some vivid descriptions of inner turmoil, this initially gentle piece hides a brutal reality as it charts the evening out of the main character.
“She would make a fair butterfly of an incision at the base of her thumb
And tie it somehow to this proverbial spindle that she would
Unwind and unwind with its turn”.
Elle sung du Nez shares features of Flores’ earlier work, the line spacing to convey the feeling within the lines rings of Buying Razors but is more reserved in its choice of language. Instead of telling of violent sexual acts like of those within Pull Out and, I said Godddam, Elle sung du Nez eases the reader into the narrative of the character’s situation, the melancholy of being trapped in the happy party scene when they are wracked in a drug-fuelled state of depression, social anxiety and isolation. Although less violent in its portrayal, it is none-the-less a destructive view of life.
The three contributions of A. Flores reflect a consistency of quality and present a challenge to traditional expectations of literary magazines. Vortex magazine offers a range of writings to suit a season of tastes and I hope that this reflection has piqued your interest.
Whilst April promises warmer weather, this year’s Vortex magazine will provide a sharp wind to blow away any preconceptions about modern writing. If you are ready to breathe in the fresh ideas of Vortex 2019 and to bask in the warmth of a familiar, quality publication then make sure you are part of the Vortex launch event ‘Out of the Vortex’ on April 8th. With a macabre circus as its backdrop, it promises to be an exhilarating fusion of stage show, prose and poetry readings that are not for the faint-hearted. So wrap-up and be prepared to be blown away by this year’s Vortex magazine.
Read past editions of Vortex here
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