She Sails
Anthology of poems and other writings
by M. Nathalie Wood
reviewed by Obediah Michael Smith
Many of Nathalie’s poems – and they’re no less successful because of it – were written in self-defense. This gives them their trigger - their impetus – their impulse.
By and large, these poems, like bow loaded with arrow, like the skin of a drum, are taut. They indicate how she herself has been tempered in response to the community in which she lives and the whole world and in response to the times during which she blossomed into adulthood. She belongs to her time and her world as these belong to her. One reflects the other.
Hers though, is not a life without humor as her folktale/poem, “Speaking Freely,” pp. 84-88 indicates. Hers is not a world without love as “Hard Mouth,” pp. 81-82 reveals.
Nathalie Wood’s poetry is a way, her way, of counteracting the convolutions life throws at us or puts us through, like noose after noose. She unknots them or attempts to with her own riddles: “Hue & Cry,” p. 48, “You Make Me Rebel,” pp. 31-32 are good examples.
At times though, Nathalie seeks or desires a too easy solution – wishes to flip a situation onto its other side like fish in fat, frying in a pan. At times naively, even without a dilemma running its course, she’d desire or imply resolution, turnaround, as indicated in “… Go Look for Work,” pp. 3-4 and to a lesser degree, in “Scenic,” p. 55.
Even in what is one of her finest, most complex poems, “Lonesome Drive,” pp. 34-38, she longs to show her reader the other side of realization in how this poem concludes but life goes on and on and it’s not ever easy.
She at times seems to wish to flip life like a coin but it’s not for tossing, not even pizza-like, into the air. Life's a long long journey we must stay on, stay with until wisdom comes.
© Obediah Michael Smith
3:45 a.m. 6/January/06
Anthology of poems and other writings
by M. Nathalie Wood
reviewed by Obediah Michael Smith
Many of Nathalie’s poems – and they’re no less successful because of it – were written in self-defense. This gives them their trigger - their impetus – their impulse.
By and large, these poems, like bow loaded with arrow, like the skin of a drum, are taut. They indicate how she herself has been tempered in response to the community in which she lives and the whole world and in response to the times during which she blossomed into adulthood. She belongs to her time and her world as these belong to her. One reflects the other.
Hers though, is not a life without humor as her folktale/poem, “Speaking Freely,” pp. 84-88 indicates. Hers is not a world without love as “Hard Mouth,” pp. 81-82 reveals.
Nathalie Wood’s poetry is a way, her way, of counteracting the convolutions life throws at us or puts us through, like noose after noose. She unknots them or attempts to with her own riddles: “Hue & Cry,” p. 48, “You Make Me Rebel,” pp. 31-32 are good examples.
At times though, Nathalie seeks or desires a too easy solution – wishes to flip a situation onto its other side like fish in fat, frying in a pan. At times naively, even without a dilemma running its course, she’d desire or imply resolution, turnaround, as indicated in “… Go Look for Work,” pp. 3-4 and to a lesser degree, in “Scenic,” p. 55.
Even in what is one of her finest, most complex poems, “Lonesome Drive,” pp. 34-38, she longs to show her reader the other side of realization in how this poem concludes but life goes on and on and it’s not ever easy.
She at times seems to wish to flip life like a coin but it’s not for tossing, not even pizza-like, into the air. Life's a long long journey we must stay on, stay with until wisdom comes.
© Obediah Michael Smith
3:45 a.m. 6/January/06
posted by Obie Quiet at 5:32 AM
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