Vo(i)ces II - A Review by Cathy Bryant

VO(I)CES II - A REVIEW BY CATHY BRYANT

Vo(i)ces II is an anthology of the winning and commended poems from The Victorina Press Vo(i)ces Poetry Award, and as such is a celebration or get-together of sorts. Like parties, prize anthologies vary enormously, and the reader may or may not want to attend. Fortunately, this is one book to engage with if you possibly can. It’s so beautifully organised, and the people there are so fascinating!

The agreeably broad theme was Life, Death and Beyond. Any poet has experiences that pertain to this, so I expect that there were many entries. The twelve in this volume are all strong and well-written, and interpret the theme in original and different ways. This is an extract from one of the winners, Sarah Leavesley’s ‘Overgrown’:

Night falls, but light refuses
to leave this garden quietly.
Blood moons blossom from knots

in the wood. The trellis bends
beneath the heaviness
of their throbbing petals.

The joint winner, ‘The First of November’ by Virginia Ramos Poseck, is completely different in approach, tone and imagery. The narrator of this poem says of her home that it:

is closed off by the nacre
carapace of a tortoise
I carry it on my shoulders
with its helmet of tapestries and books

The judges praised the musicality of this poem, and I agree with them. I’d happily show you the whole thing! Anyway, these two poems show what an exciting mix there is in the anthology.

The poems are in English and Spanish, which adds another aspect to the book. Comparing the two is fascinating, as one can compare the poetic techniques and effects in both languages. For example, in Mabel Encinas’ poem ‘Perhaps Death Means Coming Back to Your Mother’, we have the line:

Perhaps death is the mother of total consolation

In Spanish, the line is:

Tal vez la muerte es la madre que todo lo consuela

In English the line is beautiful and meaningful, but in Spanish the alliteration of ‘madre’ and ‘muerte’ bring the concepts even closer together.

In Mark Totterdell’s richly evocative poem ‘Sussex’, we have names and nuances that are steeped in English history and culture: flint and barrows, the white horse, the names of pubs.

This must have been a challenge for those who translated this into Spanish. For instance, the line

the long man upped staves and abandoned his hillside

became

el hombre gigante levantaba bastones y abandonaba su ladera

which has different nuances while retaining the sense and power of the English. I particularly liked the translator’s footnote to this poem:

El Star, el George, el Smuggler’s, el Eight bells, el Ox, el Rose Cottage, el Tiger son pubs en Sussex.

Mandy Macdonald’s poem, ‘Three Postcards from Havana’, is as short as the title suggests, but that doesn’t impinge on the strength of the poem at all. Here’s part of the first ‘postcard’:

I know now
the exact spot where a joy
has always lived in the same little room
waiting for you to visit

The other two stanzas deal with absence, and then the return of tranquility. Not easy to pull off in a few lines, but Macdonald manages it with simple beauty. 

I must mention Lee Nash’s ‘The Cygnet’, in which a church singer is asked to perform Saint-Saëns ‘Le Cygne’ at the funeral of a child. This is perhaps the most narrative poem in the book, and one of the most moving. It’s all the more powerful because the singer, narrating the poem, didn’t know the child:

so much grief,
it’s impossible to tell which is Mummy

until I spot her,
the wet slags of her eyes unmistakeable,
her slack weight supported from behind in a vice
by her new man,
a smudge of tattoo fresh on his Adam’s apple –

Here’s the final line, with its pain but a touch of hope, in Spanish:

No Soy Ángel
Pero Tengo Alas

Keith Jarrett’s poem ‘Instructions for My Death’ is a jolt of the unexpected, with powerful imagery and the impression of the narrator (and the poet’s!) strength and imagination. Here’s a delicious extract:

And if anyone asks, tell them
I dreamt of islands on fire
And dirty windows closing
Like bibles in the wind

Another poem I’d like to show in full, because it’s so full!

David Bleiman’s poem ‘Funeral Plan’ is on a similar theme to Jarrett’s, but different in approach. It’s observant and also witty:

There will be a playlist, still to be finalised.
On my current form,
Don’t buy Daddy any more whiskey
Might hit the spot.

In a poem about death, a laugh can be extra rewarding.

‘Uncle Pedro’ by Lester Gómez Medina is filled with Spanish words and concepts, and those whose Spanish is better than mine will find that version the best. In English it still sweeps the reader into Spain:

Two things would break Uncle Pedro:
the scorch of midday rising through his bare feet,

hard as stone from never wearing shoes.
The guarón scouring his throat, flowing into his veins.

This clear portrait is extremely evocative, and I had the rare pleasure of wishing that a poem was longer!

Another Spanish/Hispanic poem is by the indigenous Mexican/Spanish/British poet Marina Sánchez – ‘Choosing Mother’s Last Flowers’. I couldn’t help expecting a poem about dithering over different lovely blooms, but oh no! This is a wonderfully certain poem, using its subject matter to demonstrate the bond between daughter and mother. Sánchez wrote both versions of the poem, and also translated some of the other poems. She is very talented!

Finally (though I haven’t reviewed these in the book order – I’ve hopped about all over the place with playful joy) we come to ‘Death Came Twice’ by Caroline Hickman Vaughan. This is the sort of poem with a bold idea in it, and here it’s used to evoke emotion in the reader. Well, I was a mess. The poem has all the disparate things that one thinks of at a funeral, from the sun biting the windshield to little pink cakes, and what the deceased would think of the funeral. It’s very well done.

I know it’s fashionable to find some negatives too, to show that I’m not a partial and soppy reviewer. There aren’t any, though. The judges’ and translators’ reports are full, and filled with both the knowledge and the love of poetry. The bios of the poets at the end are informative and not constrained to a short sentence or two. The contents page shows in which language the poem was submitted, and to which language it was translated. I found that fascinating.

I think I almost found a fault – I would have liked page numbers on the contents page, so that I could find and reread the poems as quickly as possible. But in every other way I felt honoured to read and review a book of this quality. It’s outstanding, both in content and production. A labour of love and skill.

Here, thankfully, is the sort of prize anthology the poetry lover should make every attempt to read. Like the best parties and celebrations, those involved are intelligent, compassionate, keen observers, and imaginative creators. Come in! Bienvenida!

 (Vo(i)ces II launches February 2023 – available online from www.victorinapress.com or can be ordered from all bookshops) 

CATHY BRYANT

Cathy Bryant has won 32 literary awards and writing competitions, and she co-edited Best of Manchester Poets Volumes 1, 2 and 3. As well as judging prose and poetry comps, she has had four books published: Contains Strong Language and Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Look at All the Women, Erratics, (all poetry) and How to Win Writing Competitions (nonfiction). She lives in Salford with her writer husband.