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Not for the
inhibited, not for the shy, not for the ‘Victorian sensibilities’
- this book is brash, bawdy, ribald and ... fun! The one necessity
is a rabellaisian sense of humour. The editors set out to prove
that poetry ‘can cast a shrewd dry observant eye over our foibles
and inconsistencies, treating them with gentle mockery or savage
ridicule.’
Read, for
instance, the first poem ‘Big Boobs, by Gloria B Yates: ‘see me
clumping down the street/ dragged by the dogs on a double leash/
with my big boobs wobbling/ wobbling all over/ who’s taking who
for a walk they say/ ...’ and smile at the picture created. The
reader is drawn into poems such as Kate O’Neill’s ‘Dear Miss Dix’:
‘I’m a lousy lover/ and I’ve been told/ I should use all the practice
I can get/ and yet/ I keep on having to say ... / I’m sorry ...’
and keeps reading.
Which is not
to say that Knight and Samuelowicz have avoided serious subjects.
The longest poem in the book, Ouyang Yu’s ‘Written by a Chinese
Prostitute’ is thoughtful, oddly poignant, and thought-provoking,
‘my body is the universal language that requires no learning/
my body is the world map that covers all the territories of desires’
and on to the poem’s amazing last line. Janice M Bostok’s ‘When
It’s Over It Isn’t’ is difficult but rewarding with swiftly turned
images that tell a story.
Some of the
poems are indeed irreverent, but pithy. Gloria B Yates’ ‘I will
Lift up mine Eyes Unto the Hills’ starts with a take-off of Psalm
121 and moves successfully to Psalm 23 with bitter comment on
first environmental and then media pollution. Brenda Lewis’ sketches
are unobtrusively suggestive and definitely enhance the anthology.
The editors want us to know that poetry ‘can be wicked too, and
wickedly amusing.’
And they succeed
with this eclectic collection of poetry that is lascivious, ‘on
occasion even irreverent, often carnal but seldom if ever obscene.’
In fact, this collection never crosses the border into obscenity,
funny it is, indecent it is - a great book to share with friends
over a beer, or to browze through with a like-minded partner.
JOANNA
M. WESTON: born in England; married to an accountant, Robert;
3 sons, one daughter-in-law, 3 grandchildren, two cats; has a
green thumb and an enlarging garden. M.A. from the University
of British Columbia; appears in several anthologies; published
in Canada, U.S.A., U.K. etc. for the past 15 years in magazines
such as CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES, CHIRON REVIEW, DANDELION, ENDLESS
MOUNTAIN REVIEW, SPIN, WRITER’S OWN MAGAZINE, GREEN’S MAGAZINE,
etc.; reviews poetry. chapbooks: ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES, 1987;
CUERNAVACA DIARY, 1990; SEASONS, 1993; ALL SEASONS, 1996 (2nd
edition 1997).
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