Review by Pat Nolan
Maureen Owen's strengths are obvious from the very first reading. Depth and clarity of expression, swiftness of verse, effortless, confident lyricism, honesty of emotion (not sentiment) and perception all qualify the poems of Imaginary Income. Her truth is found in the everyday, a disarming epiphany of the mundane. "I fold the blanket to end winter" she begins a poem, understanding the power of words, as well as the intrinsic nature of ritual. Something this simple and strong and intuitive leads into a maze of concerns as diverse as Cezanne, clocks, and the Babylon of the confined. Owen, at the center of her universe (the poem) extracts a subtle irony. It's ambiguity is the source of what is to come next, a quickstep heel and toe song and dance of exuberance.
Cezanne said
each part was as important as the whole (so) I
bought a clock because it had Mexico (stamped) on
the back
"Talking to distract the listener, or Hanging out with the Beloved equals
a festival" rests, as do all of Owen's poems, on its many individual parts,
its weave of past and present. It is as Philip Whalen said, "A continuous
fabric (nerve movie?) exactly as wide as these lines." These poems offer a
quick refreshing dip into an original poetic consciousness. They are fluid,
delicate yet rough, passionate yet calm. Owen's artistry is clearly evident in the shorter poems such as "No on ever eats the last of the grapes" where she can display her keen-edged humor and deft precision.
the Way the egret and the fish meet in
the sky tide & rocks hold conversation
wet greens from wetter blues
I am not the spellbound water skier
being lunged at random!
tho I notice I've written my list of ways
to get through the day
the vocabulary card called "dregs"
These shorter poems are contrasted throughout Imaginary Income with
longer poems whose sustained lyric lines and accrued complexity of
repetition and variation propelled by sprightly language rolls off the
tongue headlong into the realm of music.
was the reason he called the reason he called for was that the reason
you find a line to answer the phone in the darkish kitchen
children are calling they say here is how much money I need
at some time or
gradually you stop talking to him about it you talk to no one
when the phone rings it is children never him and you are relieved
the children fill you with light
was he doing all right doing all right
it was then she found she liked organizing & constructing
she put the various together and felt stronger
she did it alone now she was
("untitled")
Maureen Owen's work has always been unique, and unusual in its look; the
poem moves across the page mimicking a player piano roll in the way it
triggers the synapses. To read her poems is to play her melody. She can
be compared to Bonnie Raitt in that she has a strong confident voice with
earthy overtones In some poems she echoes that pervasive American folk
style, the blues, and blends it with classical lament.
I said "sometimes you don't know you
don't know & so you don't know that you
don't know" Abstraction can give you
a grace that allows you to complain
("the bitter complaint")
Owen's use of "narrative" titles as an introductory element for some of
the poems, going beyond simply naming the work, is a device also familiar
to Chiang K'uei, the Southern Sung tz'u poet. The title, rather
than serving as a nameplate of identification, becomes a door, an opening
to the verse that follows. Chiang K'uei's prose introductions to his poems
were often quite long and elaborate but his innovation did transform the
Chinese lyric tradition. Owen's are more caption-like and bristle with a
remarkable, incisive wit. They are her own innovation and offer up the
hope of transformation. For instance:
Dashboard Idol
or
Imbecility differs from idiocy. In idiocy the mind
is not developed; in imbecility it is imperfectly
developed. Idiocy is absence of mental power;
imbecility is feebleness of mental action. See Idiot
story of
or
We
watch the swimmers intermittently decapitated &
reinstated decapitated & reinstated whole
headless whole headless
Through these openings, the poems are accessible though certainly not a
walk in the park. Owen makes demands that are conceptual as well as
syntactical, emotional as well as literate. She segues from one molecule
of sense (or "no"-sense) to another with the practiced ease of an all
night DJ. The domestic, the ordinary, the daily grind of dust to dusk
have their tediousness stripped away to reveal the raw golden light of
enchanted moments.
one night. Starry. a young woman trampled
clothes in a stream no ordinary laundress
she or I to be bending
at the waist as night is elegantly bent.
("tall white & densely fluid")
The poems in Imaginary Income strive for a reflective epiphany, a
process of revelation arrived at with an off-handed and roundabout ease
that is characteristic of Maureen Owen's work in her six other collections
of poetry including Hearts in Space and Zombie Notes.
Suddenly, you are there, transported on the wings of an evocative
imagination, in a world that is enduring, maternal, endearing, sensual.
The problem with Imaginary Income, if it can be viewed as such, is
that its 47 pages leave the reader wishing for a more extensive
sampling -- it is a case of half a loaf being better than none at all. But
ultimately, the poems in this slim volume are works of easy assurance and
expressive clairvoyance with a tart quickness that closely resembles
Dickinson's epigrammatic reflex. Owen's is a distinctive voice well worth
hearing.
Copyright © 1995 by Pat Nolan.
First published in Poetry Flash, June, 1992.
Click here to go to selections from Imaginary Income .
Light and Dust @ Grist Mobile Anthology of Poetry.