The Circle Game

Since the weather turned nice I've spent lots of time on my deck, reading and tanning. My cubicle buddy mentioned I looked tanned, a satisfying compliment after so many hours spent outdoors in the name of beauty. But the effects of my other outdoor activity, reading, went unmentioned! She didn't say "Cam, you look tanned and you sound more intelligent than you did last week." I guess she didn't want to imply that I sounded dumb before all the reading. We're very polite at the office.

I've just finished The Circle Game, one of Margaret Atwood's first books of poetry. I think I've read it once before but not recently, and I'm sure I skipped the introduction the first time because it really helped me mentally string the poems together. I think it's important in a book of poetry that the poems "speak to each other." I don't think a one-page poem can accomplish much on its own, which is maybe what makes lit journals so boring to read, despite their being full of great Canadian poets, because the poems are published individually. The introduction is written by Sherrill Grace who was once an English prof at UBC, my alma mater.

As usual with M.A. the content in a number of poems is a mystery to me--aside from a few cool images I'm mostly scratching my head and grumbling over and over "but what does it mean!" Some of them are concrete and straight forward though, the kind I love initially but then the meaning sneaks up on me in the last few lines and I love them more. And of course there are a few really cutting poems about dysfunctional relationships which are always my favourite. One great poem "Eventual Proteus" ends "my face flinches/under the sarcastic/tongues of your estranging/fingers,/the caustic remark of your kiss." Burn!!

But then there's another poem "Letters, Towards and Away" which I find romantic--I'd even call it a love poem. Romantic? Margaret Atwood? I know! I hate to "sum it up" but I would like to think it's about an emotionally closed woman (the speaker) who is opened up to the idea of love by another person (the "you" in the poem.) My favourite part: "but just by standing there and/being awkward/you force me to speak/love."

I'm headed out to the deck now to read some short stories by Alice Munro (from her new collection of selected stories Alice Munro's Best) which I'm enjoying quite a bit. BTW, I have the week off work and I'd like to find some good contemporary Canadian poetry to fill my time. Any suggestions?

Poets turned fiction writers (or the other way around)

Recently my mom bought me Holding Still for as Long as Possible by Zoe Whittall. It takes place in Parkdale and as usual I think it’s neat to recognize place names in books. I have friends who don’t like to see Toronto landmarks appear in Canadian writing because that means the author is “trying too hard to be Canadian.” I think that’s a double standard though because American writers can sprinkle the names of New York subway stations into their stories as gratuitously as they like and no one bats an eye.

I also borrowed a book of her poetry, Precordial Thump, which I really enjoyed. Now I wonder if my reading experience was enhanced by having read her fiction already. I think it’s interesting to read poetry and fiction from the same author, particularly when I read them one after the other so I haven't forgotten all the author's writerly quirks. In writing school I felt bad about recycling my favourite words across all my genres but as a reader I’m interested to pick out a writer’s recurring words, characters, images, etc. Zoe Whittall seems to like “monitor” as a verb and she uses a lot of paramedic jargon. As for Margaret Atwood, I’ve noticed she likes “bulge” and turning circular things into eyes.

Speaking of them together, Zoe Whittall and Margaret Atwood have both written poetry about dating liars/psychopath types. Those are my favourite in Precordial Thump because I find myself attracted to unemphathetic types fairly consistently. Learn from your mistakes Cam (...but they’re so charming!)

The idea of wanting to see somebody as either all good or all bad comes up in both the novel and the poems, which is another comparison I would make if I were required to write a five paragraph essay about them. I think I miss school.