{"id":422,"date":"2016-08-25T14:39:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T18:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/?p=422"},"modified":"2016-08-25T14:39:31","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T18:39:31","slug":"review-of-inheritance-by-carla-drysdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/?p=422","title":{"rendered":"Review of Inheritance by Carla Drysdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Drysdale<\/a>Carla Drysdale. Inheritance. <\/em>Finishing Line Press, 2016. 29 pgs. $14.49.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Lynn Domina<\/p>\n

We might be entering a new age of the chapbook, just as we\u2019re entering (I think) a new age of the prose poem. Dozens of presses are now publishing chapbooks, and writers who\u2019ve published multiple full-length collections are embracing the form, often for projects well-suited to this publishing mode, sequences of related poems, for example, that gain substance from being published together without the context of additional unrelated poems. Although poets still often begin their careers with chapbooks, the form, in currently appealing to established poets also, is redefining itself and elevating its prestige. \u00a0Finishing Line Press is no longer an upstart as small presses go\u2014it\u2019ll celebrate its twentieth anniversary in two years\u2014and it specializes in the chapbook, publishing multiple titles each year. It has become, in fact, one of the most influential chapbook publishers in the country. Carla Drysdale\u2019s Inheritance <\/em>is her first chapbook, but it follows a full-length collection, Little Venus, <\/em>which was published in 2009. The poems included in Inheritance <\/em>are thematically linked, as the speaker considers the lives of her children and her parents. The content is often difficult, but Drysdale is able to articulate strong emotion by recollecting it, if not exactly in tranquility, then with measured concern.<\/p>\n

The opening poem, for instance, which is also the title poem, explores her two sons\u2019 differences which align them with her in distinctive ways. The poem intensifies as its proceeds, until what\u2019s most surprising is also what\u2019s most unsettling. The opening lines are straightforward, and the tone seems calm, nearly objective, but it is also deceptive:<\/p>\n

One of my two sons devours books
\nas I did, bespectacled, silent.<\/p>\n

There are childhood facts I\u2019d like to check,
\nbut the past is unpopular<\/p>\n

with my mother. Her husband wasn\u2019t a reader.
\nHis eye was on me during the day<\/p>\n

and at night,\u2026<\/p>\n

The transition from assurance to ominous occurs already in the second couplet, which\u2014through Drysdale\u2019s line break\u2014initially seems to refer to the son. Readers are startled, then, at the introduction of the mother, and slightly uneasy therefore with the husband who \u201cwasn\u2019t a reader.\u201d Drysdale exploits her options with the line again between couplets two and three: \u201cduring the day \/\/ and at night,\u2026\u201d The poem narrates the speaker\u2019s experiences with her mother and stepfather and then turns again, at the 2\/3 mark, to discuss the \u201cother son.\u201d He<\/p>\n

peers into<\/p>\n

the legacy behind my eyes,
\nat what I\u2019m trying to hide.<\/p>\n

His pleasure and pain
\nare always mine<\/p>\n

as when he kisses his cat or bends
\nhis pen in half and yells at me,<\/p>\n

enraged by the words
\non the page.<\/p>\n

This son initially seems empathic and affectionate, and again meaning bends across the turn of the line break. He \u201cbends,\u201d not for a hug or caress, but to break the pen that won\u2019t properly write the words he can\u2019t properly read. Superficially, this son is the opposite of the first who \u201cdevours books,\u201d but this son is devoured by inarticulate rage, just as the speaker is as she recalls the actions of her stepfather and the inaction of her mother. The sons, by responding to print as differently as they do, create a composite of their mother\u2019s apparent and hidden character. Drysdale, in choosing the restraint of couplets and the flexibility of the enjambed line, permits the poem to reveal rather than to declare its meaning.<\/p>\n

Many of the poems in Inheritance <\/em>work similarly, including the final poem, \u201cRafael\u2019s Question,\u201d which is also composed in couplets and also concerns the speaker\u2019s position generationally between her sons and her parents. This poem imagistically and thematically links the chapbook\u2019s end to its beginning, but now there\u2019s an implication of reconciliation with the events life has brought rather than rage at them. The son\u2019s final question regarding his grandparents is poignant\u2014\u201cHe asks, \u2018Do you still love them?\u2019 \/ So gently, so gently\u201d\u2014because it\u2019s ultimately a question about whether the speaker\u2019s ability or inability to love as a daughter will be replicated in her ability or inability to love as a mother.<\/p>\n

Formally, the most unusual poem in the collection is \u201cLabyrinth,\u201d which relies on anaphora to establish a chant-like rhythm through the first half. These stanzas describe the speaker\u2019s mother\u2019s protection:<\/p>\n

She who bore me, supported my slack newborn neck
\nin her palm while she bathed me in a small basin,
\nwarm water tested on her wrist<\/p>\n

At exactly the half-way point, though, the tone and content shift:<\/p>\n

Who covered me up in the sun, but neglected the darkness
\nI was in\u2026<\/p>\n

There is no more \u201cShe who\u201d protects the speaker, but lines like this: \u201cAbandonment, it sounds so harsh, then and now, \/ well, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d If it sounds harsh, it is because maternal abandonment is harsh. The final stanza describes the speaker\u2019s relationship with her mother as a \u201clabyrinth of denial\u201d\u2014complicated denial, for its unclear whether it\u2019s established by the mother or by the speaker, and so is attached to both. A labyrinth, though, is different from a maze in that the path of a labyrinth never leads to a dead end. The path of a labyrinth always leads to the center and then to the exit as long as the pilgrim keeps walking. So although the poem ends with the word \u201cdead,\u201d some hope remains, at least implicitly.<\/p>\n

Although short, Inheritance <\/em>is not slight. The poems are thoughtfully composed, and they will stay with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carla Drysdale. Inheritance. Finishing Line Press, 2016. 29 pgs. $14.49. Reviewed by Lynn Domina We might be entering a new age of the chapbook, just as we\u2019re entering (I think) a new age of the prose poem. Dozens of presses are now publishing chapbooks, and writers who\u2019ve published multiple full-length collections are embracing the form, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-areviewaweek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":424,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}