Poetry review – HAVING HER CAKE: JenniferJohnson admires Wendy Klein’s collection for its bold and sensitive treatment of assisted dying
Having Her Cake
Wendy Klein
Hen Run
ISBN 978-1-9196455-9-9
35pp £4.00
Wendy Klein is a widely published poet who has won many prizes. She is a retired psychotherapist and has published three collections.. Her childhood was spent in California though she was born in New York. She left the U.S. in 1964 and has lived in four countries since then including this one. I think in this collection I can assume the writer is the narrator as Klein, on her website, describes this pamphlet as “25 poems describing my 65-year relationship with my oldest friend, culminating in her terminal cancer and physician assisted death in California which I was privileged to attend.” www.cronepoet.com Assisted dying remains, of course, a contentious subject in this country.
The overall impression I have is of a highly empathetic and skilful writer but one who can tough-mindedly examine the subject of assisted dying with unflinching honesty. I want to look at a few poems in the collection describing the journey described above and how their style adds to their power.
The collection begins with the following poem which I will quote in full.
California Calling
Barbara never knows what time it is in Britain
the eight hours’ difference
the calculation
its addition
or subtraction
defeating her either way
so she tends to call each time
at the wrong time,
when I have a train to catch
in the wee hours of the morning,
and nearly always
half-drunk
So her dead-sober voice
In the middle of dinner
is a surprise
three new tumours
inoperable
She tells me next
of her choice, courtesy of
her new best friend
the kindly California law
on assisted dying
I tell her I am coming
This style used in this poem is one with minimal punctuation perhaps representing a realistically fluid experience in which the two friends haven’t rehearsed what they’re going to say. The indented lines emphasise the difficulties when “Barbara never knows what time it is in Britain”. The last line sets up the journey the writer has instantly decided to take to be with her oldest friend in her last days.
Other poems are written in different styles. The poems that follow describe the life of the friends over many years beginning with N-Judah – 1961. N-Judah is a hybrid streetcar/light rail line in San Francisco. The joys of sensual youth are described in the following lines
she is dark as I am fair…I can see us ready
to take San Frisco by storm long legs
short skirts big picture hats strewn
with fake blooms roses violets poppies
In this poem spaces are used instead of commas avoiding cluttered typography and giving a more impressionistic description than one in which conventional punctuation is used.
In Dr a a a ma the friend has a string of affairs while the writer had an “absurd little marriage” which her friend “mocked at every opportunity”. The writer wonders about her friend “Would she really have her cake/eat it too”. Later in the collection is the poem ‘Having her Cake’ from which the title of the collection comes from.
The following lines from the poem ‘Nuptial Bed’, in which the writer suggests the following instead of marriage, will be in the reader’s mind when they later come to read about how the friend dies in bed.
might it not be a better move,
I say – to marry your bed – your own
perfect bed, you chose so thoughtfully,
…
Think about its welcome, I croon,
hypnotic – reliable day or night, never cross
or rejecting. You could die in that bed,
be buried in it, not even parted by death.
Is it legal, you ask? I snort, and we laugh
Together. I know you’ll sleep for now.
Context is everything. The energy expressed in the first part of the collection contrasts sharply with what is presented in ‘A Loose Collection of Skin and Bones’ along with “The shock is a Zimmer frame.” The later poems in the collection are inevitably darker and treat the subject of assisted dying unflinchingly. ‘Waiting for Death and Margie’ is written in short lines to emphasise the friend’s thinness. We are told
and she is with us
and not with us –
in and out of a doze,
enrobed in scarlet:
dressing gown
matching nightgown:
scarlet; scarlet in life
scarlet in death
The scarlet colour emphasises how the friend is still the same person as she was. In the next poem ‘Recipe for Release’, written in long-line couplets, an incantation is introduced by the doctor
her final hours (six), during which she will begin and end her life
with his magic pills and potion – Zofran, Secobarbitol.
‘Nine Rules for addressing the dying’ ends with stark realism
9. Remember there is nothing that will make it better.
‘What you can’t wake’ is a short poem comparing someone who is dead with someone “not-quite-dead”.
No, you can’t wake the dead,
but the not-quite dead
are too awake, their eyes
peeled until the last,
In ‘By the Book’ we are told at the end
We were tearful, of course, as much
at the beauty of it, as the serenity of it,
as at the sadness of your going. You had done it;
we had done it, by the book, and that felt right.
This links with the friend’s desire for an elegant death as she “wished for in life”.
The collection ends with happy memories indicating some healing. It takes time for a person not to remember anything but the last image they have of a dead person. The final poem ‘Tapioca – For Barbara’ begins
For us it was ambrosia
better than booze or fags
for comfort on those late nights
huddled over the saucepan
taking turns stirring
The layout emphasises a time in which the two friends worked together.
I recommend Having Her Cake not only for its honestly examined heart-rending subject matter but also for the considerable skill with which the poems are written.
London Grip Poetry Review – Wendy Klein
Poetry review – HAVING HER CAKE: JenniferJohnson admires Wendy Klein’s collection for its bold and sensitive treatment of assisted dying
Wendy Klein is a widely published poet who has won many prizes. She is a retired psychotherapist and has published three collections.. Her childhood was spent in California though she was born in New York. She left the U.S. in 1964 and has lived in four countries since then including this one. I think in this collection I can assume the writer is the narrator as Klein, on her website, describes this pamphlet as “25 poems describing my 65-year relationship with my oldest friend, culminating in her terminal cancer and physician assisted death in California which I was privileged to attend.” www.cronepoet.com Assisted dying remains, of course, a contentious subject in this country.
The overall impression I have is of a highly empathetic and skilful writer but one who can tough-mindedly examine the subject of assisted dying with unflinching honesty. I want to look at a few poems in the collection describing the journey described above and how their style adds to their power.
The collection begins with the following poem which I will quote in full.
California Calling Barbara never knows what time it is in Britain the eight hours’ difference the calculation its addition or subtraction defeating her either way so she tends to call each time at the wrong time, when I have a train to catch in the wee hours of the morning, and nearly always half-drunk So her dead-sober voice In the middle of dinner is a surprise three new tumours inoperable She tells me next of her choice, courtesy of her new best friend the kindly California law on assisted dying I tell her I am comingThis style used in this poem is one with minimal punctuation perhaps representing a realistically fluid experience in which the two friends haven’t rehearsed what they’re going to say. The indented lines emphasise the difficulties when “Barbara never knows what time it is in Britain”. The last line sets up the journey the writer has instantly decided to take to be with her oldest friend in her last days.
Other poems are written in different styles. The poems that follow describe the life of the friends over many years beginning with N-Judah – 1961. N-Judah is a hybrid streetcar/light rail line in San Francisco. The joys of sensual youth are described in the following lines
In this poem spaces are used instead of commas avoiding cluttered typography and giving a more impressionistic description than one in which conventional punctuation is used.
In Dr a a a ma the friend has a string of affairs while the writer had an “absurd little marriage” which her friend “mocked at every opportunity”. The writer wonders about her friend “Would she really have her cake/eat it too”. Later in the collection is the poem ‘Having her Cake’ from which the title of the collection comes from.
The following lines from the poem ‘Nuptial Bed’, in which the writer suggests the following instead of marriage, will be in the reader’s mind when they later come to read about how the friend dies in bed.
Context is everything. The energy expressed in the first part of the collection contrasts sharply with what is presented in ‘A Loose Collection of Skin and Bones’ along with “The shock is a Zimmer frame.” The later poems in the collection are inevitably darker and treat the subject of assisted dying unflinchingly. ‘Waiting for Death and Margie’ is written in short lines to emphasise the friend’s thinness. We are told
The scarlet colour emphasises how the friend is still the same person as she was. In the next poem ‘Recipe for Release’, written in long-line couplets, an incantation is introduced by the doctor
‘Nine Rules for addressing the dying’ ends with stark realism
‘What you can’t wake’ is a short poem comparing someone who is dead with someone “not-quite-dead”.
In ‘By the Book’ we are told at the end
This links with the friend’s desire for an elegant death as she “wished for in life”.
The collection ends with happy memories indicating some healing. It takes time for a person not to remember anything but the last image they have of a dead person. The final poem ‘Tapioca – For Barbara’ begins
For us it was ambrosia better than booze or fags for comfort on those late nights huddled over the saucepan taking turns stirringThe layout emphasises a time in which the two friends worked together.
I recommend Having Her Cake not only for its honestly examined heart-rending subject matter but also for the considerable skill with which the poems are written.