Under the Influence of Lilacs

Under the Influence of Lilacs

Deborah Gordon Cooper

This collection of poems is an interesting combination of remembering, observing the process of aging, counseling the grieving, and finding solace in nature. In her opening poem – Prelude to Daybreak – we glimpse the world that Ms. Cooper lives in  – “of waiting rooms/and penitentiaries.”  And it ends with the solace she seeks in nature “step out the door/breathe deeply in.”    The world of plants is her world, the gardener, the naturalist – “I am that half-remembered/tender-green/color of longing.”

It is poetry that releases her emotions and comforts those around her, “I read poetry/ the way someone/ somewhere else/ reads scripture.”  And she moves in a sensory world, “Leave your cell phone, your watch/ your thoughts/ on the kitchen table. “  “Walk slowly.  Leave the trail.”   And if this is autobiographical as well as philosophical we know “though I am easily/ distracted by/ a kite, caught/ in a tree” she is not without compassion and commitment to the people around her.  Nor does she lack humor, “And still, I keep catching myself/  addressing myself out loud/ as if I am my constant friend…” and I cannot give away the punch line.

Her gift to the world is her ability to capture the frustrations and fears that surround the human experience – “Let us pray that we might cease/ to plant the seeds of fear/ and hatred in their minds/ that we might never lay/ another weapon of destruction/ in their arms.”

There were poems I read to Kate because they captured her love of grandchildren Imagine and others that captured the love we share as we grow old together The Dancers.  Moving forward we also look backward and “the faces in these photographs/ become the faces of the dead/ my secret saints.”   And there are lines that are perfect in capturing a moment – “The sky is packed with/ sack-of-flour clouds.” 

She takes us to the complex places through the common place – “In a soft fold of time/ between the ironing/ and the income tax,” and reminds us that in life “We are just passing through/ these bones.”

The Reindeer Camps, Poems by Barton Sutter

This is the first of three books that Lake Superior Magazine asked me to review – three books of poetry.  So the question is – how do you review poetry?  I do not write it, I tried, when I was in college.  I made rhyming verses because my English professor said it would give me writing discipline to conform to meter and rhyme. Then Whitman set me free to ramble and I did, but prose was my medium and not just prose, but non-fiction.  So I review these tentatively as a person, who loves books and loves what great writers do with words; I explore poetry annually, digging in to great poets, which the Northland seems to produce in such wonderful abundance and quality.  I love the works of Louis Jenkins and Konnie Wanek, but judging poetry is difficult.

A poem is a picture and a rhythm – a song without music and images in abstract with words.  I have to read the first few lines over and over to discover their sound and listen to the words to get the image.  Which brings me to Barton Sutter who lives in Duluth and has become an important name in poetry with numerous awards and recognition: others have judged his merit so I can only report how I react personally to the poetry in this collection.

The poetry is compiled in sections – chapters if it was prose - and the poems are linked in a loose set of themes.  The first section examines some of darker sides of people Barton has encountered and the conditions that challenge our perspectives.  He captures the lonely frustration of dying among the candy stripers and piped in rock music: “Like earmuffs to my head, And stumbled from the house To runrun, runaway.”    He remembers the lumberman, Nils, who is moved by the discovery of a nest in a tree he has cut.  It is not the birds, but the human emotion that causes Nils to tie the tree upright to a still uncut tree in hopes the parents will return – “The frightened parents must have fled, But I like thinking how Nils tried.”

His lines are clever, often humorous and always thought provoking – “Father, Holy Ghost, and Son Were peanuts in a single shell” and we glimpse perception in lines like: “A five-year-old doesn’t judge but sees.”  We can picture the farmer, a roughhewn man who extends sympathy to a child stung by a hornet. “I see his trembling, farm-thick fingers Plastering his young son’s brow With a dripping lump of cool blue clay To take the hornet’s sting away.”

Part 2 is a reflection on a sense of place – “But nothing says north like a white pine Unless it’s a maple gone red to maroon.”  He captures the frustration I felt just the day before reading his ode on the construction on Highway 1.  We hate the fact that we can no longer see the river we crossed: “Our looks now boomerang off a blank wall, The highway turned hallway, one more Aesthetic atrocity committed, one more Beauty spot blotted out.”  Amen.  Instead he celebrates nature and the wonderful way it celebrates and supports diversity, “To work together for the great good of green.”

And we laughed as I read aloud Those Finnish Folk: “Pioneered by people awful fond of failure.”  “They believe in Sauna, Nudity, and Coffee.”  The tear jerker is an ode to his dog – those animals evolved to be our best friends and our worst hurt. 

Section three is about the Bush administration and did my liberal heart good!  Section four was filled with a collection of images and topics, but if there was a central theme I was not able to catch it.   Section five is about books and writing – an assortment of whims, loves, and relationships between reader, writer, and the printed word.  “So the years passed.  It might take him all day to write one sentence.  If he published it, by God, he meant it.”

In section six Barton explores his love of his wife, her bravery, her loveliness and her absence.  In the final poem With You in Spain you can feel the writer walking the garden daily taking in the flowers and trees that they have planted and rejoicing in their beauty while noticing that it is not the same when she is in Spain.  The introspection of this journey through time and garden ends with a soliloquy on the place that is their place and what it will be like when both are dead and someone else owns this precious place.  “I tried to tell myself When we are dead and buried It will only be As if we’ve gone to Spain.”  But it will not be that simple “Let me try to make this plain.  Imagine you had seen Apple petals drifting down Like manna on the lawn, But we were gone.”

The final section is one epic poem – Reindeer Camps – that takes us far north and puts us where we have never been and probably will never be.  It is a journey in to timelessness – it brings forth the metaphos of age and place in the barren lands of Siberia.  – “And seldom settle anywhere For longer than a month or so.  To overgraze the grass and moss Would be a grave mistake.”  There is a lesson there for all mankind and our voracious consumption. And this plain landscape is a place to reflect on human space and place – “Taiga, taiga, world of white, Home to sable, black as night, What mere human mind or eye Can take in your immensity.” 

It is an excellent collection and a philosophic poetry tinged with humor and insight. 

Raptor Almanac Scott Weidensaul

The Raptor Almanac, Scott Weidensaul

This is an excellent summary of the hawks, falcons, and vultures of the world.  It is interesting that he would include new world vultures now that we know that they are related to storks – the old world are not – but not owls.  He does acknowledge the new world vulture’s phylogenetic relationship.  But other than being a puzzle of content, the book does a thorough examination of the birds structure, habitat, behavior, lifestyles…

In addition we read some fun vignettes that keep the book from being a dry text book.  For example we learn that harriers have greater facial disks than other raptors and like owls use them for gathering sound.  However, they are not offset like the owl which makes them less accurate in judging location.  The difference is made up with the eyes.

Or we learn about a raptor pellet (the indigestible portion of a prey) that is regurgitated and in one case had the leg band from a widgeon that had been dinner.

Then there is the goshawk that was so intent that it flew in to the chicken coop with the farmer and his daughter.  The daughter dispatched it.  Another goshawk chased a chicken under a woman’s skirt.  In Mexico Kestrels follow trains to snatch up the prey that is running from the engine and red-tailed hawks follow tractors to get escaping voles.

Most raptors are solitary, but the author tells about Harris hawks that work like a wolf pack and cooperatively hunt for large prey like Jackrabbits.  And some small kites and falcons that hunt insects do work in flocks like song birds.

I am trying to picture, in my mind the idea of a Great Horned Owl laying its eggs in a Florida Eagle nest and then, both the owl and the eagle sharing the nest and sitting on their own eggs.  Too incredible.

“The lammergeier, or bearded vulture, is one of the most majestic of all diurnal raptors, with a wingspan of nearly nine feet…” “In some areas, lammergeiers have developed a taste for marrow, which they satisfy by carrying large, heavy bones aloft in their feet, then dropping them to the orcks bleow;  the vulture may go into a steep dive before releasing the bone, increasing its velocity.  When the bone smashes, the lammergeier lands and uses it specialized stiff, scoop-shaped tongue to remove the marrow.”

There are numerous charts and side notes with anecdotes for naturalists, birders, biologists.  It is easy to find the information with lots of subheadings as well as the clearly defined information in the charts. 

Cedar by Hilary Stewart

Hilary Stewart makes the relationship between the Cedar and the Northwest Coast indigenous nations come to life with this celebration of their spirit tree - living store.

"Throughout her life the newborn baby girl, born before the coming of the sailing ships from far-off lands, would rely on the magnificent cedar as an integral part of her life on the Northwest Coast.  The child would grow up to respect the cedar tree above all others, believing in its spirit and power.  She would refer to the cedar's supernatural spirit as "Long Life Maker" and "Rich Woman Maker" because it provided the necessities for a comfortable and full life."

I have read and observed how the birch tree serves the people of the Great Lakes, the Bison takes care of the people of the plains and this provides a similar - no waste, use it all, understand the species account of the trees that provide for all the materials that the people of the coast could need in their daily lives from canoes to woven mats.

But like the bison, this rich treasure is not as abundant any more.  "Great cedar trees, with clear, true grain, are becoming difficult to find as more of them succumb to the logger's saw, yet there is no other tree that can provide so generously, so totally and so beautifully."

The catalog of uses is extensive, but most impressive are all the line drawings that detail the collections and the processes used to make all the items.  This is both an anthropologist delight and a beginning how to for those who would like to revive the traditional arts.

For me the true delight is in the extensive inventory that the trees provided and the reverence for the tree itself. "In the early times, native people felt that even the sump left after felling a cedar contained life and a spirit."

Adventures on the Wine Route - Kermit Lynch

This is a book for people who like two things - wine and France.  Lynch is wine buyer with a wine shop that demands high quality wines to sell to his clientele and he makes an annual trip to France to sample, explore, and discover the right wines to buy.

It ends up being a travel log that documents many classic wine areas - describes the land and introduces the reader to fascinating wine makers and even some classic restaurants.  The wines he drinks are wines I cannot afford, but would love to taste, yet it is not the fact that these wines are out of my budget that matters - it is the discussions that he has with the wine makers, the connection he makes with the land, the cellars and caves, and the importance of the right process.

He compares the wines and challenges the reader to trust his own palate and not to be overly influenced by the wine scores.  He is not worried about the wine scores, but frustrated by them because the scores drive the industry and cause the wine makers to try to make uniform wines in the style that gets the score - not the wine that the grapes and terroir would suggest.

He sees vineyards that he had bought for years become uniform and boring.  He sees the old oak barrels replaced by glass and steel and the wine becomes a laboratory experiment instead of a unique personality. As the vineyards "modernize" he loses his sources and finds disappointments in many caves where the wine is great in the barrel and terrible in the bottle.

Because people want a wine without the sugar sands that are natural the vineyards go to bottlers who filter twice and remove the character and nose of many classic wines.

The author advises us to celebrate the diversity of the wines and vineyards to accept some fizz, some sediment, some cloudiness.  "There is so much contained in a glass of good wine.  It is a gift of nature that tastes of man's foibles, his sense of the beautiful, his idealism and virtuosity."

The book was published in 1988.

Death of a Kingfisher - M. C. Beaton

A Scottish policeman in the small town of Lochdubh has resisted promotions that would take him to the big city, preferring his highland home and landscape despite the antagonism of his supervisor.

This is a series with a number of BBC episodes based on Hamish MacBeth, a bachelor (and from the descriptions a desirable male) who lives with his too fat partner and his dog and a wild cat.

It is not a thriller detective novel and even the detection is pretty elementary in this edition, but it is breezy and filled with characters that carry the adventure along.  It begins with the death of an actual Kingfisher and as a bird watcher, that was enough to get me started.  This birds death actually sustains the first three chapters, but then people start to die - lots of them, one after the other and Hamish, despite the obstacles of his own department continues on the case.

Does he come up with the right answer?  That is for you to figure out.  Do the guilty get punished - a little.

Fun and light reading, but not a series that I would become addicted too - yet, for a summer read - go for it.

Force of Nature - C. J. Box

Mr Box has created a very enjoyable series with a game warden - Joe Pickett who seems to always be in law enforcement (criminal) rather than fish and game, but that is okay, because then he is the outsider always tweaking the system, even though his job is within a related system.  Joe is likable and has a loving family that adds complexity to his decisions and life.

Nate Romanoski is his alter-ego, the man who is not restrained by the rules.  He lives in the forest, off the grid, out of site, doing Falconry and hiding from a past as a covert operative in a secret military group.  We know he has a deep secret that he keeps inside himself, but it is a secret with tentacles that could strike out at him at any time with deadly force.

These two make excellent foils and develop a deep respect and love for one another.  They are brothers of a sort, each being what the other isn't and in this book that love and respect gets the ultimate test as Nate's past catches up with all of them.  Many people die, lots of action, a fast pace, and a satisfying conclusion.

Nate must protect himself with the skills he learned in secret ops and Joe has to protect his family, but cannot desert his friend.  The two have parallel stories within the book since they are operating solo, but in the same context.

Set in Wyoming and Idaho, the stories are wonderful blend of both personality and place and this book is like a culmination of a series within the Pickett series.  I recommend it, but only if you have read some of the previous thrillers so that you have an understanding of the events and relationships that could not be fully developed within this book.  I do not think it is a stand alone book although some will pick it up and enjoy it as a first.

The Secret Scripture - Sebastion Barry

Kate and I listened to this book on our road trip to MI and enjoyed the story, but have to warn that it starts slow - I really wondered what the point was for a large part of the opening and we were disappointed in the ending.  Now, despite those caveats, we liked the story and its unique pace.

An asylum for the insane is going to be closed and the pressures of the Irish government is making everyone take a second look at the patients and their conditions.  Should they be set free (saves money) or  remain committed?  

One patient is unusual - she is 100 years old - and her story is confusing (because it is complex, perhaps she is insane, or maybe it is because she is 100) and the circumstances of her admittance is lost in history.  So the doctor who does the investigation gets caught up in the mysteries of her life -  and uncovers lots of mysteries that need to be interpreted and sorted out.

The Priest is not a counselor - he becomes a moral dictator and judge who finds it easy to condemn others, but not to see his own weaknesses.  This book moves through the Irish revolution, it contains murders and annulments, rejection and abandonment.

There is a secret that begins to appear to the reader, but not to the characters and it becomes agonizing to wait for the revelation to strike.  Roseanne, the centenarian, is writing a history of her life, Dr. Green is researching her life and the reader must sort out the truth between memory and research. It all flows together as we move to the point where we expect the revelation to be acted on...

I cannot spoil it.  But I also want to add that the book captures the Irish accent, the language idiosyncrasies, the tragedies of the revolution and the evolution of the country.  There is a lot to talk about and think about in the book.