Yes, the very first word is ‘I’, but perhaps, like the heart, the poet then releases herself as she explores the body and soul in several different ways, mostly from a third person perspective.
As with Lynda’s book, the theme, at least initially, is very strong, in this case that of the medical profession. In fact, you’re just getting to the point where you start to wonder for how much longer the poet can explore this theme unwaveringly when, quite suddenly, there is a change, and poems about childhood fairytales and more personal poems are introduced.
I think I would have preferred all the poems to have been mixed up, rather than in separate blocks, or if they had to be separated, two or three actual section breaks would have worked better I think. The medical poems are excellent
though. Of the later poems, Silver
contains my most hated word – inappropriate – but I suppose Jivani can hardly be blamed for that.
Overall, a very nice, highly competent first collection – readable and enjoyable, with a lot to get the mind working; this is a book to which I would happily go back to to read again. Jivani clearly has a natural ability, you just wonder if she shouldn’t perhaps be more ready to convey how at ease she is – it might be the difference between slumping into a chair and gently relaxing or feeling the need to be seated bolt upright and alert.
The Consolations by Duncan McGibbon was the least interesting of the three for me. Perhaps it suffered from being the last of the three I read, but I just didn’t feel that the reader is really being paid heed to here. There is far too much in the book that is so personal to the writer that left me cold as a reader. There are a lot of classical-type references, particularly in the first and third sections. I know this is very much a tradition in poetry, but it doesn’t work for me, unless it’s done really well, or there is something truly original about the writing, which I didn’t feel there was here. The first section is peppered with ugly sounding German words – well, maybe that’s a matter of opinion, but to me they were.
Most of the poems have extremely short lines, so that sometimes a single word becomes a line, which I think is stretching the boundaries of what a line can consist of unnecessarily far.
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