A Matter of Selection
by Carol Smallwood
ISBN 9780998146980
97 pages
Price: $17.00,
Poetic Matrix Press
www.poeticmatrix.com
Paperback, Available from Amazon
Review by Carole Mertz
Intriguing Style and Content
In her Preface to this 2018 collection, Carol Smallwood tells us “It’s the whispered that has the most impact,” when she reads the work of others. She has a unique way of putting to work the whispered or unspoken in her poems (which I’ll illustrate below). She cites a quotation from Octavio Paz who suggests we gain understanding not only from the words chosen by the poet, but also from elusive elements that appear fleetingly from within the poetic pauses, or even from the silences.
“We Select,” a pantoum, forms the Prologue to this volume. The second and fourth lines repeat in their correct places as we move through the quatrains. I quote it in its entirety because it is so representative of Smallwood’s style. It is a little masterpiece, strong in its use of suggestion, and evoking thoughts or associations that go beyond the page. When we think of a Thanksgiving dressing, aren’t we likely to recall our own Thanksgiving events—the friends or family gathered, the full bellies, the communal experiences? And what bundles of associations do we attach to her selected words “morning fog,” “a melody,” or a “smile of a friend”?
We Select
a few—the selections random: a melody, morning fog, a path,
knowing with certainty at the time they’ll be ours to the end—
an imprinting sudden as first love with no thought of aftermath:
a sunset, muffled cry, a Thanksgiving dressing, smile of a friend.
Knowing with certainty at the time they’ll be ours to the end,
they return at unexpected moments, their clarity a surprise:
a sunset, muffled cry, a Thanksgiving dressing, smile of a friend.
bringing feeling from depths we cannot withhold, disguise.
They return at unexpected moments, their clarity a surprise
an imprinting sudden as first love with no thought of aftermath
bringing feeling from depths we cannot withhold, disguise.
a few—the selections random: a melody, morning fog, a path.
Many become favorites as I read through the seventy-one poems. They are organized into four sections, of which “Moments in Time” and “Speculations” include especially intriguing content, along with a variety of forms and free verse, as in the other sections.
In any Smallwood collection, it’s easy to find yourself moving from as mundane an item as a button box to contemplations of the moon, or from thoughts about light to packets of salt that appear on fast food trays. These poems tell us how thoroughly she contemplates the near and the far, in the life around her. The seeming simplicity of some of her themes makes the poems appealing to the lay reader, just as her style and poetic craft are appealing to the reader who appreciates villanelles, pantoums, triolets, and other poetic forms.
An element of her style not to be overlooked is the humor she injects, often subtle, but sometimes causing outright cackles. in her “J.C. Penney Litany” she speaks of the store’s offerings of “shirts on armless plastic, necks neatly chopped.” In “A Dishwashing Liquid Pantoum” (p. 67) we are wondering, after “she’s” spent many long minutes, which soap “she’ll” select. The poet writes:
when a man came, looked a second, walked away with one.
It was time to stop wondering about ULTRA, comparing scents,
studying price per ounce, if degreasing power was overdone…
This comparison of a male’s with a female’s method of selecting soap formed a fun poem.
In another well-constructed pantoum, she considers the minds of soldiers in the Civil War (p.48). In “Icons” (p.49) she contemplates the Mona Lisa and the Sphinx, and in “what Does it Mean?” (p. 51) she asks what it signifies when people say “It is what it is.”
Though this collection includes a near-excess of what I’d call list poems, most of them are redeemed by Smallwood’s elegant style and pleasing rhyme words. “Patterns,” in the Epilogue (p.97), is as satisfying as the Prologue poem. It’s one that again exemplifies the elusive skill of extending thought beyond what lies on the page.
It’s notable that A Matter of Selection marks Smallwood’s tenth collection issued since January, 2014. Five of these are poetry volumes. I found Interweavings, (Shanti Arts Publishing, 2017), a creative nonfiction volume, particularly rewarding, as well. Smallwood has contributed notable poems and essays to the Society of Classical Poets in recent years. Many of her earlier prose anthologies have served a wide audience of readers, and librarians, in particular. |
