|
Stroking David's Leg by Ellaraine Lockie:
A Review by David Fraser
In Stroking David's Leg, Ellaraine Locke's most recent chapbook, the reader is taken
on a journey spanning Europe, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Alaska.
Ellaraine is a remarkable poet and a keen observer who creates narratives
that are whimsical, sensual, deadly critical as well as complimentary of
the places she visits. Always it is in the minute detail that she grabs her reader.
In "On Avoiding Stendhal Syndrome" we get a comic tug of war between the gourmand
delights of Florence and its staid museums. The line describing her reaction to
the statue of David which is not in a museum, says it all.
"… your labored breathing
Because you've just run your hand up David's
Marbled leg muscle in the piazza around the corner
And you can still feel the flush spreading
From palm to pelvis"
That beauty and such a sensual response makes the trip worthwhile just as the
visit to Holy Trinity Bridge in "False Florence" is appreciated because that
is "Where Dante waited to see his Beatrice." We get the sense here of a critical
traveler who shuns the false Casa de Dante Museum and takes a swipe at the Medici
vanity and power and its arrogance and influence that could commission bad art
in the poem "The Medici Wears No Clothes"
In "First Five Minutes in Venice" we find a sensual description of an Italian
"Marlboro Man" who with his stance and jaunty leaning captivates the narrator
and leaves her "wishing (she'd) bought those five-inch heels back in Florence/Because
(she knows) he's looking at (her) ass."
In "Vacation Violation" written with great alliteration and cadence, a burglar
steals more that money; he steals her peace of mind.
"Sadist who steals her sleep
for the balance of her Berlin stay"
It is in the little details that often makes the poem and tells so much.
"my longed-for-chocolate bar" her addiction, that is forfeited because
she gives her two euros to a street musician who will probably spend it
on his own addictions. The poet observes in "Berlin Bear" a pair of twins,
or clones, or lovers, identical in every way down to their tight bodies in
designer jeans with the exception of "a small blue stuffed bear/suspending
from one shoulder bag." The bear steals the moment.
In a couple of poems Budapest comes off bruised and battered. There are always
places when you travel that are disappointments and even disasters. Maybe we
need to check Travel Advisor.com to find out about the Opera House that redeems
the animosity of the bars and streets of Budapest.
Ellaraine is constantly reminding us in these poems that there is often culture shock,
a lack of pure communication, and often a sense of imbalance when we travel. She
captures the flavour of Barcelona with its distinct differences from the rest of Spain,
but there is a sense of uneasiness. In "An Act of Kindness" we are reminded of inappropriate dress.
In Bali we see that things are not always what they seem and that we should not jump to western
conclusions. In "Culture Shock" the chicks and rabbits crammed and dead or dying in cages
in a Mexican market shocks the narrator, because this cruelty is out in the open. However
there is no mention of the cruelty of North American factory farms and slaughterhouses,
maybe because they are hidden in the western world, but that issue might be for another poem.
One of the most delightful poems is "Horsepowered in Hawaii" where a liberated
woman is a midlife earth goddess no longer caught up with image as she was ten
years earlier and she is more beautiful and sexy for it.
She "buys souvenir shop T-shirts
That spell comfort across unbridled breasts"
and
"inside she's a wild mustang
Horsepowered by menopausal muscle"
In "Bipolar" the poet contrasts the claustrophobic confinement on an Alaskan cruise ship with the vast indescribable
beauty of bald eagles, blue-white glaciers, calving ice, humpbacked whales. At the end the journey is worth it; what
she sees in the natural world is as beautiful as the wide open prairie spaces that the author loves; the rest is
to be endured.
There is an edginess to the poems that reflect just how difficult it is to be a traveler
especially an American traveler. There is the mafia bar owner of Budapest to over-charge you,
the hooker to con you by claiming for an unpaid hand-job, or by accusing you of assault, the
thief in Berlin who steals your travel money and ruins the holiday, and since 9/11, the London
bombings of 2005, and the fall out of the Iraqi War, there is the fear of future terrorist attacks.
In this collection you will visit foreign cities and see them in a very unique light. It is an
experience just as any destination is.
Title: Stroking David's Leg
Publisher: Foothills Publishing
Number of pages: 39, hand bound
Price: $10 plus postage
Ordering address: http//www.foothillspublishing.com/2009/id60.htm
Or Foothills Publishing, PO Box 68, Kanona, NY 14856 (607) 566-3881
Ellaraine Lockie writes poetry, essays and children’s stories. She has received poetry residencies
at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA, her eleventh Pushcart Prize nomination, the 2008 Writecorner Press Poetry Prize, the 2008 Skysaje
Poetry Prize, the 2007 Elizabeth R. Curry Prize and finalist status for the 2007 Joy Harjo Poetry Award and the Creekwalker Poetry Prize.
Recently released publications are Mod Gods and Luggage Straps, a poetry/art broadside from BrickBat Revue and her fifth chapbook,
Blue Ribbons at the County Fair, a collection of first-place contest winning poems from PWJ Publishing.
Email: Ellaraine Lockie
Return to Table of Contents
|
