CM Magazine: Lonely in a cool, sweet way

________________ CM . . . . Volume I Number IX . . . . August 11, 1995

Lonely in a cool, sweet way
Maureen McCarthy
B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 1994.
64pp, paper, $9.95.
ISBN 1-55017-115-1.
Grades 10 and up / Ages 15 and up.
Review by Patricia Fry.

With her third book of poetry, McCarthy continues to paint word images. Her subjects may be commonplace things such as puddles, thoughts, and muggy afternoons, but her treatment delivers a visual punch.

In her poem, "The Clothes," there is this line: "I must observe this, this is life happening --" Observing daily things and events and then reflecting on same is something McCarthy does very well. Because her topics are familiar, her poems stir a sense of recognition. For example, in "My Head," every reader will identify with the "black holes," with the "doubts that flare and settle."

There is a sense of daydreaming in many of her poems as McCarthy paints a scene; but often the reader is rudely awakened when she sneaks in a question out of context. In "July Cities," she describes how the "cities swirl" and the "rich purr" before asking: "Can there be want, can there be misery?"

Sometimes, her keen observations are positively tactile. Take "Night" for example:

Feel night crowd against you
nuzzle up against your sternum,
feel its velvet touch.

Oh my, it happens yet again! The poem takes off and carries the reader with it.

It wants to knock you off that branch,
waltz you round the lawn.

McCarthy has two other books of poetry: She Reminds Me of Vermeer (1980) and The Girls in the Last Seat Waving (1989). I would recommend buying a copy of Lonely in a cool, sweet way for use in a secondary-school library. Several English courses feature at least one section on Canadian authors and many students would enjoy McCarthy's poetry and possibly comparing her work to that of other Canadian poets.

Recommended.

Patricia Fry is a teacher-librarian with the Peel Board of Education

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - August 11, 1995.