Poetry review – FOR MARY, MARIE, MARIA: Sue Wallace Shaddad explores Lucy Rose Cunninghamâs allusive and mysterious poetry
For Mary, Marie, Maria
Lucy Rose Cunningham
Broken Sleep Books
ISBN 978-1-913642-33-4
https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/
34pp ÂŁ6.50
The names in the title of this pamphlet, For Mary, Marie, Maria, imply motherhood or a prayer to a Madonna. I did not find it easy to identify a narrative arc in this pamphlet but came to the conclusion that I could enjoy the flow without necessarily understanding the thought processes of the poet. The pamphlet is split into five sections â with a sequence of poems in each section, and the poems are generally (but not always) separated out by italicised headings. The symbolic words ânectarâ, âpyreâ and âlinden treeâ in the pamphletâs subtitle feature in different Sections.
Section 1 deals with a medical intervention and, in the acknowledgements at the end of the pamphlet, there is reference to the nurses at Marie Stopes (perhaps also the âMarieâ in the title). Repetition is used frequently to good effect. In the first poem âMary, at 4 todayâ, there is interplay between what a nurse (we assume) and the patient âexpectedâ and then around the word âateâ
not what I expected
when the room ate my air ate my words
when the test ate my sensibility
Nectar, the drink of the gods is introduced in the next poem âNectar envelopsâ: ânectar is a sticky cradle, /rocking 8 weeks of lethargic lullaby.â Nectar was used by Aphrodite to gain strength and cleanse her wounds after being injured by Diomedes. In the next poem, âShe liked its fragranceâ, the poet suggests the healing qualities of nectar (in one case referring to her own womb, in another to Aphroditeâs womb, using repetition again):
sweetness saw
Aphrodite cleanse in nectar
Aphrodite put nectar in your words,
put nectar in my
womb,
This Section also has very sensual and visual imagery, for example in âBasin Cloudâ
Ribbon clouds lace deep pink in the basin,
bleeding sighs whispering across the tiles.
Similarly there is striking sexual imagery in âImbibing,â
drops slip between legs
the way peaches slide down throat;
honeyed sticking a reminder of aroused clinging,
The pamphlet is peppered with references that I often had to look up. In the middle of Section I, there is a poem, âSmoking blueâ, dedicated to the Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachman, whose later years were beset by drug and alcohol abuse She died in 1973 when her nightgown caught fire. This poem could be seen to foreshadow the later lines which mention âpyreâ:
Yesterday you rang in the new month
and I remembered
why I chose not to
cut the body from the pyre
This Section ends with a reference to Maria Goretti, who according to Wikipedia, was âan Italian virgin-martyr [âŠ], and one of the youngest saints to be canonisedâ. She died aged eleven when a neighbour stabbed her fourteen times after raping her, but she forgave him. The poet invokes such forgiveness, or self-forgiveness, here, ending the Section:
Maria Goretti in her loss told Me, Marie, Mother,
for to give
forgive
Section II contains a lyrical sequence where forgiveness also features: âHer voice, grown, exhaled forgiveness;â In the poem commencing âBowls cups and wax fingersâ:
tonight I am white gold with saints,
swimming in waxen wilderness.
The linden tree is symbolic of love and fertility but also represents healing. In âUnfurlingâ,
Linden trees
smell of folds in skin folds in nights
This unusual pamphlet makes full use of the page, with indentation and with some lines right-justified â particularly in Section III. The far-right column in grey acts as an echo and deepening of sensation:
to give- as I give
in,
-yourself wholly wholeness is
an expanse,
Section IV is very brief and starts with âSpoon theoryâ when the poet feels âwhite-grey/white-grey like spoonsâ. The repetition in this poem suggests being trapped in a circularity of feeling: âinside rounded tunnels rounded spoonsâ.
Section V focuses on love and includes a rather beautiful longer poem âto New Loveâ. In this poem, the poet skilfully uses colours, music and dance imagery:
they, like her, are a tangling
subservient to blues
cobalt indigo black bottled up
in a record player,
Love is sensual: âcardinal red, / burning thirsting pulsingâ. The poet defines the relationship:
love is collapse is sinking into jazz is taking you
taking another;
John Cage and Merce Cunningham are mentioned and then in the next poem âA lift of bones and breathâ, David Hockney enters the poem. This whole Section is steeped in a form of ekphrasis which adds multi-sense richness. The poet also calls on William Burroughs:
and Burroughs tells me
how to catch a rhythm catch a fish,
each scale bejewelled crimson to indigo
night,
The first Section is interrupted by phrases like âPlease hold.â, suggesting a âphone call which is then abandoned in favour of writing: âSo I wroteâ. There is in fact a running conversation throughout the sequences. In Section II, the sequence is broken by phrases about ampersands implying the poignancy of joining together: âMy ampersand; never ending.â In Section III the intervention is âSorry I was late.â The poetâs motherâs voice enters these asides in Section IV and in Section V the Madonna seems to be invoked with âMary, Marie, Maria/ Aveâ. The pamphlet ends on the line: âthis breath voice heartbeat, a solstice prayerâ.
There is much to admire in this pamphlet and it has the authenticity of a strong response to experience.
London Grip Poetry Review – Lucy Rose Cunningham
May 4, 2021
Poetry review – FOR MARY, MARIE, MARIA: Sue Wallace Shaddad explores Lucy Rose Cunninghamâs allusive and mysterious poetry
The names in the title of this pamphlet, For Mary, Marie, Maria, imply motherhood or a prayer to a Madonna. I did not find it easy to identify a narrative arc in this pamphlet but came to the conclusion that I could enjoy the flow without necessarily understanding the thought processes of the poet. The pamphlet is split into five sections â with a sequence of poems in each section, and the poems are generally (but not always) separated out by italicised headings. The symbolic words ânectarâ, âpyreâ and âlinden treeâ in the pamphletâs subtitle feature in different Sections.
Section 1 deals with a medical intervention and, in the acknowledgements at the end of the pamphlet, there is reference to the nurses at Marie Stopes (perhaps also the âMarieâ in the title). Repetition is used frequently to good effect. In the first poem âMary, at 4 todayâ, there is interplay between what a nurse (we assume) and the patient âexpectedâ and then around the word âateâ
Nectar, the drink of the gods is introduced in the next poem âNectar envelopsâ: ânectar is a sticky cradle, /rocking 8 weeks of lethargic lullaby.â Nectar was used by Aphrodite to gain strength and cleanse her wounds after being injured by Diomedes. In the next poem, âShe liked its fragranceâ, the poet suggests the healing qualities of nectar (in one case referring to her own womb, in another to Aphroditeâs womb, using repetition again):
This Section also has very sensual and visual imagery, for example in âBasin Cloudâ
Similarly there is striking sexual imagery in âImbibing,â
The pamphlet is peppered with references that I often had to look up. In the middle of Section I, there is a poem, âSmoking blueâ, dedicated to the Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachman, whose later years were beset by drug and alcohol abuse She died in 1973 when her nightgown caught fire. This poem could be seen to foreshadow the later lines which mention âpyreâ:
This Section ends with a reference to Maria Goretti, who according to Wikipedia, was âan Italian virgin-martyr [âŠ], and one of the youngest saints to be canonisedâ. She died aged eleven when a neighbour stabbed her fourteen times after raping her, but she forgave him. The poet invokes such forgiveness, or self-forgiveness, here, ending the Section:
Maria Goretti in her loss told Me, Marie, Mother, for to give forgive
Section II contains a lyrical sequence where forgiveness also features: âHer voice, grown, exhaled forgiveness;â In the poem commencing âBowls cups and wax fingersâ:
The linden tree is symbolic of love and fertility but also represents healing. In âUnfurlingâ,
This unusual pamphlet makes full use of the page, with indentation and with some lines right-justified â particularly in Section III. The far-right column in grey acts as an echo and deepening of sensation:
Section IV is very brief and starts with âSpoon theoryâ when the poet feels âwhite-grey/white-grey like spoonsâ. The repetition in this poem suggests being trapped in a circularity of feeling: âinside rounded tunnels rounded spoonsâ.
Section V focuses on love and includes a rather beautiful longer poem âto New Loveâ. In this poem, the poet skilfully uses colours, music and dance imagery:
Love is sensual: âcardinal red, / burning thirsting pulsingâ. The poet defines the relationship:
John Cage and Merce Cunningham are mentioned and then in the next poem âA lift of bones and breathâ, David Hockney enters the poem. This whole Section is steeped in a form of ekphrasis which adds multi-sense richness. The poet also calls on William Burroughs:
The first Section is interrupted by phrases like âPlease hold.â, suggesting a âphone call which is then abandoned in favour of writing: âSo I wroteâ. There is in fact a running conversation throughout the sequences. In Section II, the sequence is broken by phrases about ampersands implying the poignancy of joining together: âMy ampersand; never ending.â In Section III the intervention is âSorry I was late.â The poetâs motherâs voice enters these asides in Section IV and in Section V the Madonna seems to be invoked with âMary, Marie, Maria/ Aveâ. The pamphlet ends on the line: âthis breath voice heartbeat, a solstice prayerâ.
There is much to admire in this pamphlet and it has the authenticity of a strong response to experience.