Poetry review â OF HEARTS: Sue Wallace Shaddad feels pulled into the emotional world of Karen Dennisonâs poems
Of Hearts
Karen Dennison
Broken Sleep Books
ISBN 978-1-913642-30-3
https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/
28pp ÂŁ6.30
This pamphlet, Of Hearts, has great density of language, image and metaphor. The recurring themes and images link the poems together and create a powerful sense of attraction. As a reader, I was caught by the almost gravitational pull of the poems which expose an inner world often explored through aspects of outer space including the sun, moon and stars.
In the first poem âAt Point Nemoâ, Dennison uses the extended metaphor of a spacecraft falling into the sea to set the narrative framework for the course of a relationship. Initially she âcircled earthâ then she was âknocked off course by junk and debrisâ. After meeting someone, she started to believe she âwas back in high orbitâ and might escape âgravityâs gripâ but she has ended with ânothing but the cemetery to break my fallâ. I like the way she also mines cultural allusions in this poem with references to âRaâ, âMirâ, âsunken cityâ (with echoes of Atlantis) and âPoint Nemoâ itself (a point in the ocean for âthe so-called Spacecraft Cemeteryâ, according to the footnote).
A feeling of closeness to something bigger than ourselves â the universe, the earth, the sea â runs throughout the pamphlet. The poem âToward eternityâ captures a sense of the poet being surrounded by âlimitless darkâ. She writes âthe sky denies me its starsâ and âI am small as a stoneâ.
Grief is featured explicitly in many of the poems. It can be risky for a poet to use abstract terms like âsorrowâ, but Dennison finds a way to use this word to good effect. In âBetween the linesâ she considers white space as being where she âunwrote sorrowâs wristâ, an arresting image which harnesses the steady drum beat of an alliterative ârâ. Using sewing as an extended metaphor, she comes to the conclusion that her âempty linesâ
pick at invisible seams, unstitch
the darkness I have been holding in.
In âWinterâs storyâ, Dennison suggests another dimension to darkness with the image âstation lamps planetary in blacknessâ. The narrator lives in a kind of half world âon the edges of thingsâ. Mid-poem, sorrow is personified as someone who brings snow and wants to show âthe opposite of warmth, the end of loveâ.
Lack of light also occurs in âAfter youâre goneâ, a moving poem expressing loss where the poet situates herself in an extra-terrestrial context: âI scour dead lightâ and âblood-dark spaceâ. The poet is faced with the enormity of space and the unknown.
I search until
the stars switch off
In the poem, âMoon songâ, the first four stanzas follow fairly time- honoured ways of anthropomorphising the moon, albeit with some striking images; but the poem turns to a much darker place at the end, totally consistent with the broad themes of the pamphlet:
Itâs then she catches sight of the blackness at her back
sheâs slowly falling into. And she knows what it means
to die, to grieve for earthâs dark beating heart.
Light and dark are explored to great effect in âHollow hoursâ, a poem about sleeplessness. The poet is caught in âtunnels of nightâ. Behind the moonâs face, there is only
this curdling blackness where images
pattern the dark, brief as sparklers.
And in the last stanza even the sun cannot really be relied upon: âthe sunâs long fingers [âŚ] conjure illusions/of light, make me forgetâ.
In âEpicentre of Longingâ, Dennison uses geographical imagery to describe the path of yearning. A series of active verbs emphasizes the continuing power of the emotion with short tercets providing a jagged edge to that sense of longing. In âBetween cloudâ, Dennison adds compound words to provide variation as well as visual stimulus: âShadow-blackâ, âleaf-lightâ, âblue-glowâ, ending with a rather beautiful image for grief:
and grief is sleeping, curled up
in the gap between clouds.
Starkly visual short-line tercets in âCast adriftâ create a bleak scene
Houses huddle
like cows in rain. Clouds
free-roam.
The poem then focuses down on an image of the sun which âpiercesâ, âneedlesâ and âpins me to each moment/like muscle to the boneâ in the final couplet. It feels as if there is no escape from pain.
âAt the edgeâ is an ekphrastic poem responding to artwork by Linda Arkley. Loss threads through the images of clouds, sun and water until the moment when the narrator disappears: âyour hand slips in mine, pulls me underâ. This is another example of immersion in the unknown. On a brighter note, the poem âHere againâ starts with a gentle image linking the sea to stars:
The lapping of the sea was a hand
throwing stars that shone white
Dennison then combines the senses in images such as âour sun shook like a tambourineâ and âThe scent of jasmine was restless as a swallowâ. This poem is full of memories and, unusually for this pamphlet, celebrates the light.
Of Hearts is rich in imagery and with each re-reading of the poems I felt bound closer to its themes: the grief of loss, darkness and light, our place in the universe.
London Grip Poetry Review – Karen Dennison
February 14, 2021
Poetry review â OF HEARTS: Sue Wallace Shaddad feels pulled into the emotional world of Karen Dennisonâs poems
This pamphlet, Of Hearts, has great density of language, image and metaphor. The recurring themes and images link the poems together and create a powerful sense of attraction. As a reader, I was caught by the almost gravitational pull of the poems which expose an inner world often explored through aspects of outer space including the sun, moon and stars.
In the first poem âAt Point Nemoâ, Dennison uses the extended metaphor of a spacecraft falling into the sea to set the narrative framework for the course of a relationship. Initially she âcircled earthâ then she was âknocked off course by junk and debrisâ. After meeting someone, she started to believe she âwas back in high orbitâ and might escape âgravityâs gripâ but she has ended with ânothing but the cemetery to break my fallâ. I like the way she also mines cultural allusions in this poem with references to âRaâ, âMirâ, âsunken cityâ (with echoes of Atlantis) and âPoint Nemoâ itself (a point in the ocean for âthe so-called Spacecraft Cemeteryâ, according to the footnote).
A feeling of closeness to something bigger than ourselves â the universe, the earth, the sea â runs throughout the pamphlet. The poem âToward eternityâ captures a sense of the poet being surrounded by âlimitless darkâ. She writes âthe sky denies me its starsâ and âI am small as a stoneâ.
Grief is featured explicitly in many of the poems. It can be risky for a poet to use abstract terms like âsorrowâ, but Dennison finds a way to use this word to good effect. In âBetween the linesâ she considers white space as being where she âunwrote sorrowâs wristâ, an arresting image which harnesses the steady drum beat of an alliterative ârâ. Using sewing as an extended metaphor, she comes to the conclusion that her âempty linesâ
In âWinterâs storyâ, Dennison suggests another dimension to darkness with the image âstation lamps planetary in blacknessâ. The narrator lives in a kind of half world âon the edges of thingsâ. Mid-poem, sorrow is personified as someone who brings snow and wants to show âthe opposite of warmth, the end of loveâ.
Lack of light also occurs in âAfter youâre goneâ, a moving poem expressing loss where the poet situates herself in an extra-terrestrial context: âI scour dead lightâ and âblood-dark spaceâ. The poet is faced with the enormity of space and the unknown.
In the poem, âMoon songâ, the first four stanzas follow fairly time- honoured ways of anthropomorphising the moon, albeit with some striking images; but the poem turns to a much darker place at the end, totally consistent with the broad themes of the pamphlet:
Light and dark are explored to great effect in âHollow hoursâ, a poem about sleeplessness. The poet is caught in âtunnels of nightâ. Behind the moonâs face, there is only
And in the last stanza even the sun cannot really be relied upon: âthe sunâs long fingers [âŚ] conjure illusions/of light, make me forgetâ.
In âEpicentre of Longingâ, Dennison uses geographical imagery to describe the path of yearning. A series of active verbs emphasizes the continuing power of the emotion with short tercets providing a jagged edge to that sense of longing. In âBetween cloudâ, Dennison adds compound words to provide variation as well as visual stimulus: âShadow-blackâ, âleaf-lightâ, âblue-glowâ, ending with a rather beautiful image for grief:
Starkly visual short-line tercets in âCast adriftâ create a bleak scene
The poem then focuses down on an image of the sun which âpiercesâ, âneedlesâ and âpins me to each moment/like muscle to the boneâ in the final couplet. It feels as if there is no escape from pain.
âAt the edgeâ is an ekphrastic poem responding to artwork by Linda Arkley. Loss threads through the images of clouds, sun and water until the moment when the narrator disappears: âyour hand slips in mine, pulls me underâ. This is another example of immersion in the unknown. On a brighter note, the poem âHere againâ starts with a gentle image linking the sea to stars:
Dennison then combines the senses in images such as âour sun shook like a tambourineâ and âThe scent of jasmine was restless as a swallowâ. This poem is full of memories and, unusually for this pamphlet, celebrates the light.
Of Hearts is rich in imagery and with each re-reading of the poems I felt bound closer to its themes: the grief of loss, darkness and light, our place in the universe.