Emma Lee dips into a collection of gentle and reflective poems by Bethany Rivers
the sea refuses no river
Bethany Rivers
Fly on the Wall www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk
ISBN 9781999598655
87pp Ā£6.99
the sea refuses no river deals with grief and longing but travels towards a note of hope. Its journey is not steeped in gloom but is packed with reminders that life continues no matter how unsettling the circumstances. āHiraethā offers descriptions of home, borrowing for its title a Welsh word that doesnāt directly translate into English but is associated with a bittersweet memory of missing places or people while also being grateful for their existence. It conveys a longing for an ancestral homeland and even though it may have never been seen
[it] is the hara, the seat of the soul. Love songs declare
home is in the eyes of your lover, or the resonance
of his voice. But I say Home is in the act
of writing. Home is a recitation of Persian poetry,
though you donāt understand a word. Home is
in the eyes of a golden statue of Buddha
in a foreign land. Home is in the smell of garlic
on your fingers, three days after you cooked
the curry. Home is a song you keep on losing,
keep hoping to remember.
āHomeā gains an initial capital as it shifts from concept to what home means for the poemās narrator. It captures the sense of hiraeth in that home is where one inexplicably feels a welcome connection, even in a foreign place. Itās also caught up in memories triggered by a scent or musical rhythm. āHiraethā comes very naturally after a poem about the poetās fatherās grave where flowers grow behind the headstone.
A later poem, āRiseā opens with a question āwhat is it that stops you going down/ to the river with stones in your pockets?ā
What you say next offers no comfort at all.
Though you want to: your oil lamp isnāt bright
enough to light the depths of my well.
Iām a single person, in the world, thirsty.
Youāre a single mother, with a thread
to the future. You have no choice.
The title is open to interpretation: it could be taken literally to refer to getting out of bed in the morning gloom, but it could also be an allusion to Maya Angelouās āStill I Riseā, defiantly getting up after being knocked down. The poemās addressee seems buried in a fog of depression and unable to enthuse. Sheās also a lone parent and has to get up to care for a child. Iām uneasy with the implication that those who arenāt parents have a choice since that suggests theyāre free of responsibilities. Virginia Woolf, who did walk into a river weighed down with stones, left behind a husband, friends and relatives; were they not a āthread to the futureā?
If the sea refuses no river begins in winter, it ends in spring. In āI turn to the daffodilsā the speaker picks one flower and holds it in order to
lift it heavenward view it again
the blanket of grey and my hand
heats up gets hotter and hotter and hotter
the flame of sun ebbs from the daffodil
into my hand along my wrist up my forearm
along my upper arms rounds-out my shoulder
creeps along my veins to the heart
punishes me with blinding heat I drop the daffodil
fall to my knees weep with no tears the aching ache
I have been burned. I am glad.
The full-stop after āburnedā is the first full-stop in the poem. The use of gaps between words suggest pauses in a line of thought. Daffodils are tricky flowers to write about after Wordsworth and their association with narcissism is not explored here. Instead they are shown as bright signs of spring and their burn is like a shock that restarts a heart.
the sea refuses no river is a collection of gentle, reflective poems that explore the passage of grief using words as a guide. The poems are restrained from sentiment by keeping their focus on healing and on lifeās continuation. The book ends in an offer of solace. The poems may not have the immediate energy of the Pete Townshend song they share a title with, but they do delicately contain the idea behind it.
London Grip Poetry Review – Bethany Rivers
August 10, 2019 by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2019 • Tags: books, Emma Lee, poetry • 0 Comments
Emma Lee dips into a collection of gentle and reflective poems by Bethany Rivers
the sea refuses no river deals with grief and longing but travels towards a note of hope. Its journey is not steeped in gloom but is packed with reminders that life continues no matter how unsettling the circumstances. āHiraethā offers descriptions of home, borrowing for its title a Welsh word that doesnāt directly translate into English but is associated with a bittersweet memory of missing places or people while also being grateful for their existence. It conveys a longing for an ancestral homeland and even though it may have never been seen
āHomeā gains an initial capital as it shifts from concept to what home means for the poemās narrator. It captures the sense of hiraeth in that home is where one inexplicably feels a welcome connection, even in a foreign place. Itās also caught up in memories triggered by a scent or musical rhythm. āHiraethā comes very naturally after a poem about the poetās fatherās grave where flowers grow behind the headstone.
A later poem, āRiseā opens with a question āwhat is it that stops you going down/ to the river with stones in your pockets?ā
The title is open to interpretation: it could be taken literally to refer to getting out of bed in the morning gloom, but it could also be an allusion to Maya Angelouās āStill I Riseā, defiantly getting up after being knocked down. The poemās addressee seems buried in a fog of depression and unable to enthuse. Sheās also a lone parent and has to get up to care for a child. Iām uneasy with the implication that those who arenāt parents have a choice since that suggests theyāre free of responsibilities. Virginia Woolf, who did walk into a river weighed down with stones, left behind a husband, friends and relatives; were they not a āthread to the futureā?
If the sea refuses no river begins in winter, it ends in spring. In āI turn to the daffodilsā the speaker picks one flower and holds it in order to
The full-stop after āburnedā is the first full-stop in the poem. The use of gaps between words suggest pauses in a line of thought. Daffodils are tricky flowers to write about after Wordsworth and their association with narcissism is not explored here. Instead they are shown as bright signs of spring and their burn is like a shock that restarts a heart.
the sea refuses no river is a collection of gentle, reflective poems that explore the passage of grief using words as a guide. The poems are restrained from sentiment by keeping their focus on healing and on lifeās continuation. The book ends in an offer of solace. The poems may not have the immediate energy of the Pete Townshend song they share a title with, but they do delicately contain the idea behind it.