Vagabond Pond - A Review by David Fraser
Vagabond Pond – poetry by Anastasia Clark
Sun Rising Books
ISBN: 1-933242-25-6
A review by David Fraser
The title conjures up the image
of the wanderer, the searcher, traveling to places blown by the wind. The pond
is the sanctuary but maybe the place of the predator where there is
vulnerability, much as in the novels of Steinbeck, the oasis Kino in The Pearl finds where the hunters come,
or the still pool where Lenny and George begin and end their sad touching
journey in Of Mice and Men.
Anastasia
Clark in her many poems speaks of wanderers, dreamers, hopeful lovers who
wander through very real dangerous terrain and equally vulnerable mythical
landscapes. Her verse is simply put leaving you thinking of the background to
the motivation for the writing. Lines are haunting in many cases. In “Unmarked
Graves” she says she’s “squeezed the hearts/Still beating there – And listened
to the suffering.” In “Window Seat” a little girl mends her handmade doll with
songs and rips up a ball of yarn, “scratching for/A mother gone.”
In “Thumbprints” she paints a portrait of a lover’s meal
gone astray –“blue thumbprints in the warm wax of candles, empty glasses fallen
over, knives gone astray, broken plates, her lover’s empty chair upside down”.
There isn’t much to salvage of their relationship even though she still loves
him. The poem “The Only Oasis” in six short lines says “Perhaps/The only
oasis/Is the imaginary/Pool of teasr-/Swirling/In our very/Own eyes.” Tears,
real or imaginary are the source of a pond of healing, a washing away of pain, and
a release from the demons that can haunt us.
Many poems
speak about or hint at abuse, and woman’s will to escape, to end the violence,
to flee the” monsters/ Who do /Look for us”. She speaks of sealing up the
windows with licorice to keep out strangers in a “house of sticks/Made of
hunger/And glued with fear”. In “I Make Aprons” Anastasia is knitting long
remembered pearls, and leftovers from a past life, a woolen pantomime. As with
her aprons, her poems speak of these good times, these dreams and fantasies
along with the pain and suffering. She says she is gathering nettle to make her
tea, “To heal the wounds/Surrounding me”. These poems are her journey, her real
and fanciful wanderings that embrace the wounds, the treats of the chaotic
world, and the pain of loss “with a roar/and a shout”, for as she says in the
opening poem “it’s all about the courage there.”
Anastasia Clark
Anastasia Clark's Web Site
David Fraser lives in Nanoose Bay, on Vancouver Island.
He is the founder and editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine, www.ascentaspirations.ca,
since 1997. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in 40 journals including Three Candles,
Regina Weese, Ardent, and Ygdrasil. He has published a collection of his poetry,
Going to the Well (2004), a collection of short fiction, The Dark Side of the Billboard
(2006)and edited and published Ascent Aspirations Magazine Anthology One(Dec. 2005)
and Anthology Two Windfire (Summer 2006)
http://www.ascentaspirations .ca/aapublishing.htm
David is currently the BC Federation of Writers Regional Director for The Islands Region
David Fraser has a BA in English from University of Toronto, and an MEd in adult
education from OISE. In Ontario he taught English, Creative Writing Writer's Craft
among other subjects at the secondary school level for 30 years. He was the ski school
director for High Park Snow School for 8 years. Currently he is a full time writer who also
teaches skiing at Mt Washington in the winter.
E-mail David Fraser
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