cath kenneally reviews "new & selected poems" by pam brown, 1990
TRANSCRIPT
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8/11/2019 Cath Kenneally reviews "New & Selected Poems" by Pam Brown, 1990
1/2
Watch
out
for
Brorwn
by
Catherlne
Kenneatty
AIvIEI^A
BROIVN'S
New
and
Se-
lecte
d
P
o er??s
app
e ared
fromWild
and
Wootley
(wtrich
also
Pub'
lished
her
last
Selectedin
I
984,
now
out
of
print)
in
1990.
The
bulk
of
these
poems
are
from
books
ofher
poems
published
in
the
1970s,
withthe
1980s
poems making
up
about
a
quarter.
The
previously
un-
publishedpoems
are
fromthe
period 1987
to
1990.
Aft
er
Pamela
Brown'hit
the
ground
running
around
1971'
(as
Kate
Iennings
put
it),
she published
seven
books
of
pol
ems
in
ten
years.
This
book
includes
all
the
poems in
the
1984
book,
some
writing
from
a
prose
collection,
andfive
newpo-
ems.
The
first
thingto
say,
then,
ls ttrat
it's
time
we
had
another
new
book,
since
her
latestpoems
are
the
best,
and
evenbetter
are
some
that
post-date
the
five
here
(and
which
appeared
in
the
magazine
Otis
Rnsh),
from
a
ms called
This
World'
This
Plrce.Watch
out
for
it,
whichever
corner
it
springs
from.
(Brown
has
so far
stuck
with
small
presses.)
Meanwhile
this
collectionwill
serve
as
an
introduction
to
herwork,
if neces-
sary.
It ought
not
to
be,
but
the facts
are
that,
in
this
countrY,
the
canons
still
fa'
vour the
men,
who can't
be trusted
to
redress
the
situation.
(Yet
Penguin
saw
no
needto
insist
on
one
ofthe
two
editors
of
the new
antholory
of
Modem
Austral'
ian
Poetry
being
female.)
Where
this
is leading
me
is to
mY
feeling
that
Brown's
1980s
and
I
990swork
ls her
treal'
work,
or
most
real
to
date an4
for
me,
it's
becoming
more
real.
In
an
'eminently
forgiveable
way many
of
the
early
poems
aspire
to
the
condition
of
from
Brown
ttre
kind
of
thing
she
does
in
'Rain
Story':
no tricks,
nothing
flashY,
modest
imagery
4nd
a lazy
piltng
up
of
documentary
evidence
to
create
a
moo{
when
lt's
verystill
ueryqulet
lllce thts
mornlng
i am
in
mybed
with
no
cigatettes
theli.ght
enters
sidcwaln.
malces
snuV
sMows
rain,
tlp
raln
lwanted,
ls
ralnlngfor
me
If
I were
teachfurg
a 'creadve
writ-
ing'
class
I
would
make
a spectacle
of
mlrself
over
that
poem
('[pok
with
no
cigarettcd
Could
ynu do
that?
)
.
OccasionallY
a
slightlY
Linda
Ronstadt
stanza
pops up,
but
not
to
the
lasting
detriment
of the
PoeB.
But
in'
creasihgly
the
poems
are
PepPered
with
'just
so'lines: 'ive
talked
away
/
my
best
ideas'.
I
get
excited
by
that
illuslon
of
un'
selfconCciousness
that
comes
from
clever
documenting
of
close
self-observation.
The
subject
appears
as
a curioslty,
or as
someone
else
-
or
a
nlnne
else.
Recorded
in
tandem
with
apparently
random
in-
tmsions
on
consciousness
of
the
not'
self,
the
result
can
b
e
a
suc&sfotr.
Pamela
Brown
has
alwaYs
been
able
to
do
it.
The
poems
let
ttremselves
go
more,
perhaps,
in
proportion
as
ttre phenom-
6non
of
being
a
recognised
woman
poet
-
8/11/2019 Cath Kenneally reviews "New & Selected Poems" by Pam Brown, 1990
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They
were
genuine coin
of the realm
at
the
time,
and raise
a smile
now. fuid
they
were a
way
of
striking
a balance
between
tragic
and
fllp,
as
the
good
songs are:
rolling
my own
tobacco
cigarettes
storud.
alongway
south ofhorne.
blownfitses
male
the livingcold
like
gotng
up and
askingyou
to wlre
myheart
to
lnur
electrlc
dreatn
(Nevertheless,
ttrere s
a reference
to HankWliams
to make
it a
joke.)
Sometimes
there
is
a
willingness
to
setfle
for
the
echo
of
a ballad
( where
do
you
go
/ wtren
i
ttun
from
the tarnrac ),
which
is
rarer
in
later
poems.
Some
ofthe
very
earlypoems
allowyouto
see
the
poet
play rng
around
with
the
mechanics
of
assoclation,
the
look
of
the words on ttre
page:
I
arn close
to
wu?
iamclosedtoo.
iamcloser to
Inlater
poems
the
playing
around
blends
in, becomes
fusedwiththe
result
A
tlrpical
stance
is
ttre self-ldenti-
fied tough
poet
image ,
and in the earlier
poems
this is
sometlmes
blendedwith a
Dylanesque,
declamatory/accusatory
straln:
yulurrhtogether
on
the
febrtle
utastelands
ofyurlives.
A line
such as
ttte
maniac
moon
mocks
you
/ as
your
fingernails
screech
on the
windord
mightbe
deliberatelyover
the
top, but
the
reader s
not
sure.
Don t
get
me
wrong.
I m
not
preparing
for
a
eulogy
on
moderation
in middle
age.
There s
no
improving
on some
ofthe very
early poems for
wit
and energy and
dex
terity.
The
trying
on
of hats and
voices
shbuldbe
visible
in
the
documentation
of
twentyyears
practice
ofthe
profession
of
poetry.
I m
tryingto
identifywhere
it sled
and
why
I
like
ttre
recent
results.
It s
an
indication
of
personal
taste
ttrat Ilike
best
the
previo
us
Sele
cte
d
Po e ms
affectionately
identifies
ttre
stances
adopted
to
con
front
pressures
to
be
otherwise ;
she
thinks ofBrown
asherown
creation. There
is available
tolennings,
andto
ottrer kick-
ing
women ,
instant
identilication
with
a
period
of
maturation. \Me,
who
had
been
bred
(not
to
be
too
melodramatic
about
it) as flne
victims, hostages
to
the
fame
andfortunes
of men, stnrggledto
be
oth-
erwise...
Let it be
said that
this
7s our
experience,
also.
Take lt
or
leave
it.
Will
we
settle
for
swayfung
trees
ocean
sunsets
/
stifled
moons
eclipsed
dark
mysteries ?
On
the other
han(
all
those
sunsets
were symbolic
distrac-
dons . In
any
case,
like the lady
says,
this
is
orrexperience.
I feel
entirely spoken
to by The
longYears ,
the
linal
poem
in
this selection.
Equally
affecting
are its
content
and
its
assurance.
It
does
ad-
dress
a
reader,
comfortably
and
unspecifically,
the invocation
form
hold-
ing the
pieces
ofthe
poem
together
with-
out
personalising
it
particularly, even
though
the
references
to
shared
memo-
ries iue
quite
precise.
It
begins:
T?ps
e ar e
t?w lo ngyears
and thes
e
yaars
are
the
yearc
which
pss
qubkly.
These
are the mlddleyaar*
Iots
of
writers
shy
away
from
the
crucial
task of
figbting offsentimentality
fromits allottedpreseres.
It s evenharder
for
women,
riho
have
to battle
expecta-
tions
that
they
will
gravitate to
weepy
ttremes
and
deal
with them
wimpily
or
wtrimsically.
Where male
poets
may
be-
come
arch
or
sententious
or talk
of an-
cient
Rome,
women
might
be
forgiven
for
collecting
their
bats and
balls
and
going
home,
Pamela
Brownr
thankfully,
lives
In
This
Place , and
will
reconstitute
it
professionallyforwomen
and men
of dis-
cernment
inthis
srnall
co
rutructb
n
stte
of apoem
tr
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