Trucker's Moll reviewed by James McAuley, The Irish Examiner, Monday June 22, 2009
Trucker's Moll: Several of the
33 poems in Rosemary Canavan's second collection look and read like
incantations, the lines so short, the imagery so sparse.
In The Fisherman the short lines help to convey suspense, angst, so
that a sense of relief is rendered by the longer lines of the last
stanza, when "... all I had though about him/was false, or about
another".
The title poem begins with the "moll" of the title observing the
activities in a compound, somewhere south of the Rock of Cashel, where
"steel levianthans" are preparing for a long-haul trip.
The truck she travels in, "...a trucker's home from home," is loaded:
"the stonegrinder for England is a dark hunched lump." It departs from
somewhere south of Fermoy and heads for Scotland (the poet's
birthplace), then down through Britain, then returns via fishguard to
Youghal, the "....we plunge into/the final soft darkness towards Cork."
Men of the South is based on, indeed a tribute to, Sean Keating's
masterpiece of the same title, in Cork's Crawford Gallery: "Come close
enough/you can almost smell/the wet wool of their cloth..."
In Rostellan a walk in the "ghost-laden" woods becomes a kind of
self-examination: "I am restless/until the place/gives up its
secrets...."
This observation reveals a current of emotional energy that runs through virtually all the poems.
Indeed, throughout this impressive collection the attentive reader will
be rewarded by her capacities for sharp observation, low-keyed,
economical wording, and carefully restrained ironies, whether writing
about truck drivers or nurses, Cork patriots or Welsh ironies.
This review appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, June 22, 2009
Review: The Midwest Book Review, October 2009
You don't need a lot of words to send a message. "Trucker's Moll" is the simple and honest work of Rosemary Canavan, an accomplished poet who can call both Scotland and Ireland her home. Her poetry reflects upon her heritage with simple stories and verse that speak louder and longer than they appear. "Trucker's Moll" is a choice pick for international poetry collections, recommended.
The Blind Woman
She was the still mentor
of the house,
the hearth goddess.
At first you saw darkness,
then a small figure by the range
feeding the fire,
outside
her brother with sleeves rolled
splitting wood for it.
