Home
The Art of Breathing Underwater
The Art of Breathing Underwater by Cathy Ford (Mother Tongue $19.95)
Cathy Ford's first collection in twenty-one years is dense on the page, dense in associations and references. The many subjects include the disappearance of women and of species, fertility, Hiroshima, mothers, grandmothers, northern rivers, Mary Magdalene, Toronto, facial reconstruction, the Carmanah, and stalkers.
It's only a slight exaggeration to say that many of these topics might occur on one thickly worded page. In short, this is serious stuff. The middle section is a long poem in forty-five sections loosely centered on the highly original textile art of Kubota's kimonos. Perhaps an illustration of these textured silk works of art would have been helpful for some readers to better relate to the poems.
This volume will reward the reader who takes time to read slowly. Its general tone is one of elegiac reverence suggested by particulars. At 114 pages, it contains more depth than some poets manage in a dozen books.
978-1-896949-09-3
Review by Hannah Main- van der Kamp
[BCBW 2011]
Cathy Ford's first collection in twenty-one years is dense on the page, dense in associations and references. The many subjects include the disappearance of women and of species, fertility, Hiroshima, mothers, grandmothers, northern rivers, Mary Magdalene, Toronto, facial reconstruction, the Carmanah, and stalkers.
It's only a slight exaggeration to say that many of these topics might occur on one thickly worded page. In short, this is serious stuff. The middle section is a long poem in forty-five sections loosely centered on the highly original textile art of Kubota's kimonos. Perhaps an illustration of these textured silk works of art would have been helpful for some readers to better relate to the poems.
This volume will reward the reader who takes time to read slowly. Its general tone is one of elegiac reverence suggested by particulars. At 114 pages, it contains more depth than some poets manage in a dozen books.
978-1-896949-09-3
Review by Hannah Main- van der Kamp
[BCBW 2011]
Submitted on March 4, 2011 in By David.
