Scrub Cedar
by Nelson Ball
above/ground press, 2003
Celtic Highway
by Trevor Carolan
Ekstasis Editions, 2002
Reviewed by Randy Nicholas
Scrub Cedar
is a collection of eleven brief poems focused myopically on the theme of
man versus nature. The collection fails to impress, but the reader,
should he or she wish to read the collection, can take comfort in that
it only takes three minutes to read from cover to cover.
The collection opens with the poem
"Kaladar" – a poem that could use some work. The imagery is
shifty and confused by the use of awkward line breaks that seem to be
the poet’s attempt to make the poem artsy. This use of form fails to
achieve any effect other than that of pretentiousness. Throughout the
poems, the reader is reminded constantly that there is a poet behind the
words. This alienates the reader from the work.
1
Short
grass
in thin topsoil
over
rock
2
Low
bowl-shaped juniper
scattered
on high sloping rock
The line breaks also interrupt the
rhythm of the poem-- ripping the reader out of the flow and blurring the
message that the poem is trying to convey.
Ball not only fails to execute the
technical elements of poetry, but his treatment of his main theme is
rudimentary. For example, in "Kaladar" the comparison of
"bowl-shaped juniper" the poet alludes to the idea of man
destroying nature. Juniper is a shrub from which berries are used to
make gin; the image enforces the theme of man mutilating nature for his
own purposes without a care for the environment. The poet draws a clever
comparison and the straightforward phrasing is concise, but the line
breaks interrupt the poem’s flow.
Unfortunately for the reader, all Ball
manages to do is tirelessly regurgitate the theme of "nature good,
man bad". The filler poems aren’t much better. In these poems
Ball uses one sentence with line breaks after every one or two words to
state rather obvious facts. As in "April Morning":
Earthworms
on the paved road
will die
in sunlight
before
noon
The poet’s simplistic message is
humans are part of nature, and as such should respect nature, rather
than destroy it.
Although this point of view is
legitimate, the poet fails to execute it because he is unable to get out
of the way of his poems. The reader is left with a stronger impression
of the poet than of the poetry.
 In
Celtic Highway by Trevor Carolan the reader is
invited on a journey of the poet’s self discovery as he traces his
heritage while traveling from China to Alberta. Each poem is rich with
the poet’s personal history and experience.
Throughout the journey the poet
explores the relationship between nature and human culture, and how both
contribute to the evolution of humanity.
The poet begins his journey with the
Judeo-Christian creation myth. The first poem, "It Wasn’t
Eve", speaks of original sin. The poet muses that original sin was
not Adam and Eve eating the apple, or their disobedience of God’s law,
but it was love, or rather confused lust.
It wasn’t Eve who sinned and
fell
but Adam saw her first of course
from the corner of his eye.
Eve, cinnamon
Ripe as pomegranate,
Dusky-voiced,
From the confluence of the Tigris and
Euphrates.
Throughout the collection, the reader
witnesses the poet learning and growing through his travels. The poems
set the stage for the poet who compares himself to Adam.
Carolan uses experience gained through
his impression to flesh out his own history and relation in the world.
At first, he compares himself to Adam and assumes, like Adam, he has no
history. The poet is caught up in the immediacy of his world and lives
strictly in the present.
In each of the six parts of the
collection, the poet reaches different stages of personal evolution. He
evolves as he digs deeper into the past, into himself, and into his
beliefs. His transformation from identifying solely with Adam is
arduous. The poet betrays his uncertainty during his personal
transformation. For example, in "Practice", Carolan writes,
"Truly, true can be false; / truly, false can be true. / And things
are not always / what they seem to be."
Carolan demonstrates technical skill in
the poetic craft through his careful word choice throughout the entire
collection. Each poem contains its own version of the world, painting
pictures wonderful and uncertain, colourful and unique. The Poet uses
language so subtlety the reader does not notice the changes occurring to
the poet until the end
In the last poem, "Forty-Ninth
Day" the reader sees a complete transformation. He’s no longer
like Adam, the only man in the world, but rather, the poet is now part
of something bigger. "The essence of self returning to all
component / non-self elements." (emphasis in original).
Celtic Highway
tells an original story in such a way as to be comforting. It is the
kind of poetry that one reads and feels as though they are sitting by a
fireplace, letting the warm glow bathe them in comfort. It makes the
reader feel at home.
Randy Nicholas lives in a small town whose name is not important enough to mention. More of his writing can be found at
http://www.wehearvoices.com |
