Poetry review – AN O AN X: Sarah Mnatzaganian admires Maria Iaskova Bennett’s skill at conjuring images
an o an x
Maria Isakova Bennett
Hazel Press
ISBN 9781739421823
28pp £10
Anyone who delights in the colour, detail, sensuality and visual music of an exquisite still life painting will find this pamphlet a mesmerising experience. The contents page alone evokes an appetizing exhibition: “Orange Peel and Roses”, “Blue Sail”, “Apricots on a Blue Cloth”. The writer of these poems, Maria Isakova Bennett is known not only for her poetry but as an artist and creator/publisher of hand-stitched covered poetry journals through her project Coast to Coast to Coast. In this, her fifth pamphlet, she offers her reader a sequence of concise, evocative insights into her painterly imagination and practice and, by extension, into the relationship between art and life.
Many of the poems in this collection appear to be ekphrastic, but the poet told me that they are largely written about imaginary images/artistic processes. It’s useful to know this as a reader, as it allows one’s mind to open to the full significance of each closely observed detail.
The opening poem “Cup and Peaches” describes the cleaning of paint from a canvas in preparation for a fresh painting, as if the poet is asking the reader to clear their minds.
…only then
everything abraded, could she think
about what to paint back
This poem ends, as do many in this collection, with a reference to transience:
red peaches
with their short but luscious life
Short but luscious would be a good description of Isakova Bennett’s poems. She has the acuity and concision of William Carlos Williams, combined with the delicacy and resonance of Jane Kenyon.
Everywhere
paint is sweet, smoothed
back and forth, back and forth.
The poet remains behind her easel in the opening poems of the collection, questioning, describing, but not self-referring. Questions arise, apparently about the title or content of a painting, but emerge as profound philosophical questions:
Blue Sail
Why does she name only one thing –
the sail on the boat, names only what
without naming we would be least
aware of? Not red of shoe, green
of stem, cornflower jug, plum of anemone,
The elegant opening sentence, followed by a vivid list of the content of a painting, reveals Isakova Bennett’s mastery of syntax and her ability to evoke instantaneous imagery in the reader’s mind. Colours, shapes and ideas are brought into our imaginations, vibrating against each other as they would in life.
The majority of the poems are 14 lines or fewer, yet they encompass intimate worlds and vast ideas. In “A room walled like winter” Isakova Bennett concludes:
Maybe there’s nothing that can be said
about the table laid with fruit,
yellow and purple worlds
which want their own say because
between fall and decay,
there’s such a short time.
Using simple but resonant vocabulary with an assured, light touch, Isakova Bennett speaks to us naturally, her line lengths determined by the way they might best be read aloud. Like a good songwriter, she leaves room for us to pause, breathe, see, think.
This spacious but concise style involves a regular use of the en dash and a generous use of space as in the last section of the mysterious “Triptych for Samuel”
Canvas i
full of words in an alphabet I can’t fathom
I try but conclude paint stitch
or even dance could better translate
In “Triptych for Samuel” the poet refers to herself in the first person as she explains her use of different art forms for self-expression. “Advice” continues her evocation of the artistic process. For the poet, the creative process is powerful enough to control time.
Recreate the world
through cylinder sphere and cone
Turn back the clock
with its persistent heartbeat
As so often in this pamplet, the lens of attention in “Advice’”narrows to evoke fine and resonant details, then expands to a wider perspective.
Don’t proffer answers Place seed
jar apple and plate on a table
From the window – build back
a walled garden stones piled
the spill of water
Isakova Bennett is not here to proffer answers, but to express her experiences through colour and form. In one of her more ‘confessional’ or revealing poems, “With its loud shrill notes, yellow attracted me for a while” Isakova Bennett reveals that yellow is the colour of madness:
And it’s true.
It was a desperate year. Now it’s green –
which of course is blue at heart
but needs yellow
[…]
As penance,
I slather Berlin blue on my walls.
The reference to penance opens another significant theme in this sequence, which increasingly explores religious resonance in imagery. In “Morning” she describes a male artist creating a painting, including the unforgettably sensuous phrase ‘the slow pull of paint’. The poem ends, surprisingly, with a reference to resurrection:
Over each line red pencil
for rising and risen
Isakova Bennett uses varied and delicate forms: couplets, triolets, broken lines, and her syntax varies from grammatically elegant sentences to fractured sub clauses or lists, almost all well clarified with a judicious use of punctuation. The pamphlet was edited by the late, much missed Daphne Astor of Hazel Press, and one can feel the strength of the collaboration.
Many of the best poets are also fine teachers of their craft, and Isakova Bennett is no exception. Her poem, “Remembered Landscapes”, reveals the power of her vision as a poet and teacher:
Describe with any tool to hand: stick, cloth,
fingers. Rub, smear, crosshatch or shade.
Believe your own code.
Several poems refer to the relationship between visual art and music. Isakova Bennett makes her own music using internal rhyme, assonance and alliteration, all of which, flow naturally from her pen:
Smudged colour keeps us all awake,
flushes evening with mauve
for mourning, beats out songs.
The collection approaches its end with “Pray” which invites the reader to pray for a succession of colours and the flowers they live through. For the poet, colours are entities, powers and forces to be prayed to and prayed for, as if salvation lies in their existence.
The last poem, “Three Small Jam Jars Scoured Clean” uses the word ‘imagine’ for the first time. A remarkable achievement, by a vivid, evocative poet of images, spaces, possibilities to lead a reader quietly through a gallery of colour, form, and ideas, without recourse to this word.
Imagine a cloth of sand,
a museum of stones. Beyond –
the promise of a tide.
You might step out,
feel your feet sinking.
Sep 4 2024
London Grip Poetry Review – Maria Isakova Bennett
Poetry review – AN O AN X: Sarah Mnatzaganian admires Maria Iaskova Bennett’s skill at conjuring images
Anyone who delights in the colour, detail, sensuality and visual music of an exquisite still life painting will find this pamphlet a mesmerising experience. The contents page alone evokes an appetizing exhibition: “Orange Peel and Roses”, “Blue Sail”, “Apricots on a Blue Cloth”. The writer of these poems, Maria Isakova Bennett is known not only for her poetry but as an artist and creator/publisher of hand-stitched covered poetry journals through her project Coast to Coast to Coast. In this, her fifth pamphlet, she offers her reader a sequence of concise, evocative insights into her painterly imagination and practice and, by extension, into the relationship between art and life.
Many of the poems in this collection appear to be ekphrastic, but the poet told me that they are largely written about imaginary images/artistic processes. It’s useful to know this as a reader, as it allows one’s mind to open to the full significance of each closely observed detail.
The opening poem “Cup and Peaches” describes the cleaning of paint from a canvas in preparation for a fresh painting, as if the poet is asking the reader to clear their minds.
This poem ends, as do many in this collection, with a reference to transience:
Short but luscious would be a good description of Isakova Bennett’s poems. She has the acuity and concision of William Carlos Williams, combined with the delicacy and resonance of Jane Kenyon.
The poet remains behind her easel in the opening poems of the collection, questioning, describing, but not self-referring. Questions arise, apparently about the title or content of a painting, but emerge as profound philosophical questions:
The elegant opening sentence, followed by a vivid list of the content of a painting, reveals Isakova Bennett’s mastery of syntax and her ability to evoke instantaneous imagery in the reader’s mind. Colours, shapes and ideas are brought into our imaginations, vibrating against each other as they would in life.
The majority of the poems are 14 lines or fewer, yet they encompass intimate worlds and vast ideas. In “A room walled like winter” Isakova Bennett concludes:
Using simple but resonant vocabulary with an assured, light touch, Isakova Bennett speaks to us naturally, her line lengths determined by the way they might best be read aloud. Like a good songwriter, she leaves room for us to pause, breathe, see, think.
This spacious but concise style involves a regular use of the en dash and a generous use of space as in the last section of the mysterious “Triptych for Samuel”
In “Triptych for Samuel” the poet refers to herself in the first person as she explains her use of different art forms for self-expression. “Advice” continues her evocation of the artistic process. For the poet, the creative process is powerful enough to control time.
As so often in this pamplet, the lens of attention in “Advice’”narrows to evoke fine and resonant details, then expands to a wider perspective.
Isakova Bennett is not here to proffer answers, but to express her experiences through colour and form. In one of her more ‘confessional’ or revealing poems, “With its loud shrill notes, yellow attracted me for a while” Isakova Bennett reveals that yellow is the colour of madness:
The reference to penance opens another significant theme in this sequence, which increasingly explores religious resonance in imagery. In “Morning” she describes a male artist creating a painting, including the unforgettably sensuous phrase ‘the slow pull of paint’. The poem ends, surprisingly, with a reference to resurrection:
Over each line red pencil for rising and risenIsakova Bennett uses varied and delicate forms: couplets, triolets, broken lines, and her syntax varies from grammatically elegant sentences to fractured sub clauses or lists, almost all well clarified with a judicious use of punctuation. The pamphlet was edited by the late, much missed Daphne Astor of Hazel Press, and one can feel the strength of the collaboration.
Many of the best poets are also fine teachers of their craft, and Isakova Bennett is no exception. Her poem, “Remembered Landscapes”, reveals the power of her vision as a poet and teacher:
Several poems refer to the relationship between visual art and music. Isakova Bennett makes her own music using internal rhyme, assonance and alliteration, all of which, flow naturally from her pen:
The collection approaches its end with “Pray” which invites the reader to pray for a succession of colours and the flowers they live through. For the poet, colours are entities, powers and forces to be prayed to and prayed for, as if salvation lies in their existence.
The last poem, “Three Small Jam Jars Scoured Clean” uses the word ‘imagine’ for the first time. A remarkable achievement, by a vivid, evocative poet of images, spaces, possibilities to lead a reader quietly through a gallery of colour, form, and ideas, without recourse to this word.