Poetry review – I SING TO THE GREENHEARTS: Pat Edwards enjoys novel and surprising viewpoints in the new collection by Maggie Harris
I Sing to the Greenhearts
Maggie Harris
Seren
ISBN 978-1-7872-771-3
£10.99
Maggie Harris has carefully chosen the title for her book, the Greenheart being a Guyanese tree known for its ability to tolerate harsh conditions and to survive against the odds. Guyana was once part of the British West Indies back in colonial times and has areas of dense rainforest. Harris uses her knowledge of this landscape as well as her experiences of living in both Kent and Wales. She is profoundly interested in the climate crisis and draws parallels between the nurturing role of mothers and grandmothers and the resilience of plants and flowers, often using personification as a tool in describing a variety of blooms:
Mr Plantain tek a long time to mek up his mind
if he green or yellow
Among the plants referenced early in the collection are honeysuckle, clematis, sweet pea, fuchsia, and tree fern. Harris conjures their characters, colour, and scent, painting vivid pictures of lived experience, memories, re-imaginings, and the prospect of species vanishing. Her poems mourn the loss of forests, ‘they were too busy stripping/her flesh and bones…no-one sung to me/of forests.’ She observes ‘only wood/can recognise the code of the woodpecker.’
But it is not just nature she fears is under siege, Harris also comments on the cultural expectations that weigh heavily on women. In the poem “Tamarind” she discusses the male gaze and how girls are warned ‘don’t spread you legs too wide too quick.’ However, this poem about the sweet-sour taste of the fruit also displays a sense of regret at not having taken the opportunity to have more fun.
Harris is a master at using elements such as patois and white space to convey loss, anything that has already gone missing or is slowly vanishing. She also has opinions about the human condition and how it feels to be alive right now. In “A Pandemonium of Parrots” she listens to
callers on the line pouring out their sadness
into the ears of Jeremy Vine and a million
listeners stirring a cup of tea
She realises people need answers to their questions, help with their loneliness, reasons to feel hope. In “Her Wedding Dress” a woman airs the dress on a washing line after sixty-seven years ‘as if it had another chance of life.’ As in this poem, the use of lower case ‘i’often feels like the diminishment of self or even a hint at lyric shame. A particular favourite of mine is “Paper Patterns” in which a woman is sewing a dress from a paper pattern made from newspaper. There are so many quotable lines in this piece including ‘scissors buoyed with the impossible weight of dreams’. But how about this for context and powerful messaging:
She won’t cut the pages of the magazines that bring slices of lives
of which she could only dream, but The Chronicle is fine, it’s only the price
of sugar and riots again last week
By way of contrast with poems depicting old skills, other poems ask how useful and desirable social media really is, and reflect upon difficult lives, failing families and folk needing the support of social services. Harris asks many questions about language, slavery, heritage, race, communication itself. She does this in poems that challenge our perception of form, using italics, bold type, white space. There are poems too about the sea, that powerful, enduring symbol of migration, travel, currents and erosion. The poem “Wales: A Tercet, Sea, Earth, Time” is written in three voices:
(Sea) The froth/of waters is troubled with tales of the enslaved…
(Earth) the poppies did what they did best:
opened their hearts and sang…
(Time) For Sadie - a dog-shaped hole between us, a space by our side
where our hands came to rest.
The three parts serve to sum up our relationship with the world. They are massive concepts in themselves but are also celebrations of the simplicity of small things such as the love we share with one another and for our animal friends.
This collection has taken me to unfamiliar places, both in terms of style and culture. It has been good to see things from a different perspective and to consider unconventional ways of writing and expressing ideas. Central to this is the notion that women carry history and social responsibilities. But as they do so they can risk losing themselves, their passions and joys. The collection is constantly posing questions; one poem, “Lilith”, presenting thirteen or so.
I Sing to the Greenhearts is a thought-provoking book, challenging readers, making us stretch our concept of the power of poetry. The themes are memorable, playing on the mind of the reader and making a second or third visit to many of the poems essential. The collection definitely goes some way to defining our difficult relationship with the past and our struggle to truly embrace difference in modern culture.
Mar 9 2025
London Grip Poetry Review – Maggie Harris
Poetry review – I SING TO THE GREENHEARTS: Pat Edwards enjoys novel and surprising viewpoints in the new collection by Maggie Harris
Maggie Harris has carefully chosen the title for her book, the Greenheart being a Guyanese tree known for its ability to tolerate harsh conditions and to survive against the odds. Guyana was once part of the British West Indies back in colonial times and has areas of dense rainforest. Harris uses her knowledge of this landscape as well as her experiences of living in both Kent and Wales. She is profoundly interested in the climate crisis and draws parallels between the nurturing role of mothers and grandmothers and the resilience of plants and flowers, often using personification as a tool in describing a variety of blooms:
Among the plants referenced early in the collection are honeysuckle, clematis, sweet pea, fuchsia, and tree fern. Harris conjures their characters, colour, and scent, painting vivid pictures of lived experience, memories, re-imaginings, and the prospect of species vanishing. Her poems mourn the loss of forests, ‘they were too busy stripping/her flesh and bones…no-one sung to me/of forests.’ She observes ‘only wood/can recognise the code of the woodpecker.’
But it is not just nature she fears is under siege, Harris also comments on the cultural expectations that weigh heavily on women. In the poem “Tamarind” she discusses the male gaze and how girls are warned ‘don’t spread you legs too wide too quick.’ However, this poem about the sweet-sour taste of the fruit also displays a sense of regret at not having taken the opportunity to have more fun.
Harris is a master at using elements such as patois and white space to convey loss, anything that has already gone missing or is slowly vanishing. She also has opinions about the human condition and how it feels to be alive right now. In “A Pandemonium of Parrots” she listens to
She realises people need answers to their questions, help with their loneliness, reasons to feel hope. In “Her Wedding Dress” a woman airs the dress on a washing line after sixty-seven years ‘as if it had another chance of life.’ As in this poem, the use of lower case ‘i’often feels like the diminishment of self or even a hint at lyric shame. A particular favourite of mine is “Paper Patterns” in which a woman is sewing a dress from a paper pattern made from newspaper. There are so many quotable lines in this piece including ‘scissors buoyed with the impossible weight of dreams’. But how about this for context and powerful messaging:
By way of contrast with poems depicting old skills, other poems ask how useful and desirable social media really is, and reflect upon difficult lives, failing families and folk needing the support of social services. Harris asks many questions about language, slavery, heritage, race, communication itself. She does this in poems that challenge our perception of form, using italics, bold type, white space. There are poems too about the sea, that powerful, enduring symbol of migration, travel, currents and erosion. The poem “Wales: A Tercet, Sea, Earth, Time” is written in three voices:
(Sea) The froth/of waters is troubled with tales of the enslaved… (Earth) the poppies did what they did best: opened their hearts and sang… (Time) For Sadie - a dog-shaped hole between us, a space by our side where our hands came to rest.The three parts serve to sum up our relationship with the world. They are massive concepts in themselves but are also celebrations of the simplicity of small things such as the love we share with one another and for our animal friends.
This collection has taken me to unfamiliar places, both in terms of style and culture. It has been good to see things from a different perspective and to consider unconventional ways of writing and expressing ideas. Central to this is the notion that women carry history and social responsibilities. But as they do so they can risk losing themselves, their passions and joys. The collection is constantly posing questions; one poem, “Lilith”, presenting thirteen or so.
I Sing to the Greenhearts is a thought-provoking book, challenging readers, making us stretch our concept of the power of poetry. The themes are memorable, playing on the mind of the reader and making a second or third visit to many of the poems essential. The collection definitely goes some way to defining our difficult relationship with the past and our struggle to truly embrace difference in modern culture.