Montreal writer Carolyne Van Der Meer's latest book -- her fifth -- is a collection of poems that builds on some of her previous work, particularly Journeywoman, Sensorial, and Heart of Goodness: The Life of Margurite Bourgeoys in 30 Poems. Bourgeoys, if you're wondering became the first female saint canonized in Canada.
In All This as I Stand By, Van Der Meer continues her portrayal of the lives of women, both from her perspective as she journeys through ageing, cancer treatments, and other medical procedures, and speaking through the personas of historical women such as Marie Antoinette, the Brönte sisters and Bridget Boland, a 19th-century murder victim, whose husband claimed he had killed a changeling left by fairies, rather than his actual flesh-and-blood wife.
This collection starts quietly, with somewhat prosy poems set in New Brunswick, then Ireland, England, and Quebec. It soon gains intensity, though, as in mostly plain language the poet considers life-changing and sometimes life-threatening moments. The poem inspired by the Bröntes, for example, ends with some beautifully nightmarish imagery:
“...moors/ that are unyielding in their tyranny malevolent in their/ trickery their bewitching heather waving as I am overrun/ by that cackling demon of death".
Thoughts about religion and mortality are frequent, as in “Reign of Christ Sunday”, speculating whether she should
“call up the Reverend ask her if that singsong voice can conjure/ up her reigning king now when he is most needed ask her why in the face of such devastation he needs a summons”.
This is a poignant meditation on one of the central problems of Christianity; if Christ loves all his children, and God is all-powerful, why are massacres of the innocent allowed to continue? Why should prayers be needed for this to happen?
The themes of contemporary chaos and violence continue in “The Finish Line,” leaps from a race with toy wooden horses (some of them breaking legs) to deaths of actual horses in American races, and why humans push toys (and real horses) to damage themselves:
“You do it for love/
I do it for sport” he says.
“The Fibonacci Sequence” contrasts the orderly sequence of a mathematical progression with the chaos and unpredictable pain in life (a 14-year-old boy overdosing on social media, a mass shooting by a racist in El Paso) “while God’s seventh day went on interminably…”
Each poem is a window on a moment, a story, not always featuring the poet herself, but often of others she admires, or feels for, such as “Mabel in St. John’s Harbour”, and Rapunzel in “Gothically Gothel”. Gothel is the name of the wicked witch. Here Van Der Meer shows a lighter, more playful side, having fun with rhymes, puns on “locks” and sound effects:
“forgetting that the locks without the girl lock me in mock me in mockingly into my chock-a-block- with-girl-less-locks tower forever”.
Somewhat heavier is a sequence of poems about operations – hysterectomy, cancer, chemotherapy, mammogram, a CT scan, an eye's vitreous detachment. …
The collection ends with reflections on death and mortality. In "The Dog Was Dying", she imagines
“their memories shimmering like gossamer lost on the wing”.
Are mundane joys -- horses, nature, and family enough to make the struggle of survival worthwhile? For Van Der Meer, they are. In "Starling at Dusk," she affirms:
“I’m not ready to die yet”.
I recommend this collection for its unsparing honesty, precise attention to emotions and sensations, and its range -- from the intensely personal to the more nuanced voices speaking through historical figures. Van Der Meer wrestles with the big questions and chooses the right words and images to put readers into her arena.
About the Author
Carolyne Van Der Meer is a Montreal journalist, public relations professional and university lecturer. Her articles, essays, short stories and poems have been published internationally in journals and anthologies. Her four previously published books are: Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience (2014); Journeywoman (2017); Heart of Goodness: The Life of Marguerite Bourgeoys in 30 Poems | Du cœur à l’âme : La vie de Marguerite Bourgeoys en 30 poèmes (2020), and Sensorial (2022).
About the Reviewer
John Oughton lives in Toronto and has retired as a Professor of Learning and Teaching at Centennial College in Toronto. He is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Counting Out the Millennium, the mystery novel Death by Triangulation, and over 400 articles, reviews and interviews. John is a long-time member of the Long Dash Poetry Group. He is also a photographer and guitar player.
Book Details
Publisher: Ekstasis Editions (2024)
Paperback 6″ x 9″ | 66 pages
ISBN: 9781771715386