WomanWyrds

a glimpse of mind

in the mail today: Broken Jaw Press 2006 Catalogue. and a book: Edward Gates' Heart's Cupboard. here a glimpse of the heart of a poet, a life in numbered segments, without titles. how he thinks, what he knows; what he thinks, knows: his are plural, "poem taken/from the closet". a series of poetic impressions, bled of all extraneous chat like a Monet painting of rain. winner of the Poets' Corner Award for 2006, these are, as most things I have read from Broken Jaw, spare. Erin Mouré, in her jacket description, says "The pieces grasp at but elude description..."; in this she finds a "gentle, wild beauty". i find them like sketches which come back as image gaining holographic depth. the whole is more than the sum of its numbers, roman numerals in an accretion of what it is to write and be a farmer. full of blueberries, some too cold to juxtapose.

last year, after travelling Saskatchewan, i made a chapbook which i titled wild blueberries, sent it out in a very limited edition. my poems are more full but the same small sweetness is present, the truth for Gates that "a hundred and/twenty acres ripe//with laughter/keeps me going". it is not all sweetness...there is a "plaintive lament" present and many, many "frozen" moments...emotions stilled at source, walking briskly to XXXXVI where the poet says, "I tighten my jacket//and walk back to//mouth eyes nose//away from the wind/...." to "the houses alone and silent//flesh can freeze if I stop//....a damp damp cold". yet he ends hopefully, "buds open slowly first cat/eyes then the break into blossom."

something to think about from this poet of mind, heart, land.

posted by Heather Cardin @ 11:50 AM