8/11/2019 Cath Kenneally reviews "New & Selected Poems" by Pam Brown, 1990

1/2

Watch

out

for

Brorwn

by

Catherlne

Kenneatty

AIvIEI^A

BROIVN'S

New

and

Se-

lecte

d

P

o er??s

app

e ared

fromWild

and

Wootley

(wtrich

also

Pub'

lished

her

last

Selectedin

I

984,

now

out

of

print)

in

1990.

The

bulk

of

these

poems

are

from

books

ofher

poems

published

in

the

1970s,

withthe

1980s

poems making

up

about

a

quarter.

The

previously

un-

publishedpoems

are

fromthe

period 1987

to

1990.

Aft

er

Pamela

Brown'hit

the

ground

running

around

1971'

(as

Kate

Iennings

put

it),

she published

seven

books

of

pol

ems

in

ten

years.

This

book

includes

all

the

poems in

the

1984

book,

some

writing

from

a

prose

collection,

andfive

newpo-

ems.

The

first

thingto

say,

then,

ls ttrat

it's

time

we

had

another

new

book,

since

her

latestpoems

are

the

best,

and

evenbetter

are

some

that

post-date

the

five

here

(and

which

appeared

in

the

magazine

Otis

Rnsh),

from

a

ms called

This

World'

This

Plrce.Watch

out

for

it,

whichever

corner

it

springs

from.

(Brown

has

so far

stuck

with

small

presses.)

Meanwhile

this

collectionwill

serve

as

an

introduction

to

herwork,

if neces-

sary.

It ought

not

to

be,

but

the facts

are

that,

in

this

countrY,

the

canons

still

fa'

vour the

men,

who can't

be trusted

to

redress

the

situation.

(Yet

Penguin

saw

no

needto

insist

on

one

ofthe

two

editors

of

the new

antholory

of

Modem

Austral'

ian

Poetry

being

female.)

Where

this

is leading

me

is to

mY

feeling

that

Brown's

1980s

and

I

990swork

ls her

treal'

work,

or

most

real

to

date an4

for

me,

it's

becoming

more

real.

In

an

'eminently

forgiveable

way many

of

the

early

poems

aspire

to

the

condition

of

from

Brown

ttre

kind

of

thing

she

does

in

'Rain

Story':

no tricks,

nothing

flashY,

modest

imagery

4nd

a lazy

piltng

up

of

documentary

evidence

to

create

a

moo{

when

lt's

verystill

ueryqulet

lllce thts

mornlng

i am

in

mybed

with

no

cigatettes

theli.ght

enters

sidcwaln.

malces

snuV

sMows

rain,

tlp

raln

lwanted,

ls

ralnlngfor

me

If

I were

teachfurg

a 'creadve

writ-

ing'

class

I

would

make

a spectacle

of

mlrself

over

that

poem

('[pok

with

no

cigarettcd

Could

ynu do

that?

)

.

OccasionallY

a

slightlY

Linda

Ronstadt

stanza

pops up,

but

not

to

the

lasting

detriment

of the

PoeB.

But

in'

creasihgly

the

poems

are

PepPered

with

'just

so'lines: 'ive

talked

away

/

my

best

ideas'.

I

get

excited

by

that

illuslon

of

un'

selfconCciousness

that

comes

from

clever

documenting

of

close

self-observation.

The

subject

appears

as

a curioslty,

or as

someone

else

-

or

a

nlnne

else.

Recorded

in

tandem

with

apparently

random

in-

tmsions

on

consciousness

of

the

not'

self,

the

result

can

b

e

a

suc&sfotr.

Pamela

Brown

has

alwaYs

been

able

to

do

it.

The

poems

let

ttremselves

go

more,

perhaps,

in

proportion

as

ttre phenom-

6non

of

being

a

recognised

woman

poet

8/11/2019 Cath Kenneally reviews "New & Selected Poems" by Pam Brown, 1990

2/2

They

were

genuine coin

of the realm

at

the

time,

and raise

a smile

now. fuid

they

were a

way

of

striking

a balance

between

tragic

and

fllp,

as

the

good

songs are:

rolling

my own

tobacco

cigarettes

storud.

alongway

south ofhorne.

blownfitses

male

the livingcold

like

gotng

up and

askingyou

to wlre

myheart

to

lnur

electrlc

dreatn

(Nevertheless,

ttrere s

a reference

to HankWliams

to make

it a

joke.)

Sometimes

there

is

a

willingness

to

setfle

for

the

echo

of

a ballad

( where

do

you

go

/ wtren

i

ttun

from

the tarnrac ),

which

is

rarer

in

later

poems.

Some

ofthe

very

earlypoems

allowyouto

see

the

poet

play rng

around

with

the

mechanics

of

assoclation,

the

look

of

the words on ttre

page:

I

arn close

to

wu?

iamclosedtoo.

iamcloser to

Inlater

poems

the

playing

around

blends

in, becomes

fusedwiththe

result

A

tlrpical

stance

is

ttre self-ldenti-

fied tough

poet

image ,

and in the earlier

poems

this is

sometlmes

blendedwith a

Dylanesque,

declamatory/accusatory

straln:

yulurrhtogether

on

the

febrtle

utastelands

ofyurlives.

A line

such as

ttte

maniac

moon

mocks

you

/ as

your

fingernails

screech

on the

windord

mightbe

deliberatelyover

the

top, but

the

reader s

not

sure.

Don t

get

me

wrong.

I m

not

preparing

for

a

eulogy

on

moderation

in middle

age.

There s

no

improving

on some

ofthe very

early poems for

wit

and energy and

dex

terity.

The

trying

on

of hats and

voices

shbuldbe

visible

in

the

documentation

of

twentyyears

practice

ofthe

profession

of

poetry.

I m

tryingto

identifywhere

it sled

and

why

I

like

ttre

recent

results.

It s

an

indication

of

personal

taste

ttrat Ilike

best

the

previo

us

Sele

cte

d

Po e ms

affectionately

identifies

ttre

stances

adopted

to

con

front

pressures

to

be

otherwise ;

she

thinks ofBrown

asherown

creation. There

is available

tolennings,

andto

ottrer kick-

ing

women ,

instant

identilication

with

a

period

of

maturation. \Me,

who

had

been

bred

(not

to

be

too

melodramatic

about

it) as flne

victims, hostages

to

the

fame

andfortunes

of men, stnrggledto

be

oth-

erwise...

Let it be

said that

this

7s our

experience,

also.

Take lt

or

leave

it.

Will

we

settle

for

swayfung

trees

ocean

sunsets

/

stifled

moons

eclipsed

dark

mysteries ?

On

the other

han(

all

those

sunsets

were symbolic

distrac-

dons . In

any

case,

like the lady

says,

this

is

orrexperience.

I feel

entirely spoken

to by The

longYears ,

the

linal

poem

in

this selection.

Equally

affecting

are its

content

and

its

assurance.

It

does

ad-

dress

a

reader,

comfortably

and

unspecifically,

the invocation

form

hold-

ing the

pieces

ofthe

poem

together

with-

out

personalising

it

particularly, even

though

the

references

to

shared

memo-

ries iue

quite

precise.

It

begins:

T?ps

e ar e

t?w lo ngyears

and thes

e

yaars

are

the

yearc

which

pss

qubkly.

These

are the mlddleyaar*

Iots

of

writers

shy

away

from

the

crucial

task of

figbting offsentimentality

fromits allottedpreseres.

It s evenharder

for

women,

riho

have

to battle

expecta-

tions

that

they

will

gravitate to

weepy

ttremes

and

deal

with them

wimpily

or

wtrimsically.

Where male

poets

may

be-

come

arch

or

sententious

or talk

of an-

cient

Rome,

women

might

be

forgiven

for

collecting

their

bats and

balls

and

going

home,

Pamela

Brownr

thankfully,

lives

In

This

Place , and

will

reconstitute

it

professionallyforwomen

and men

of dis-

cernment

inthis

srnall

co

rutructb

n

stte

of apoem

tr

20