{"id":4422,"date":"2013-05-06T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T09:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=4422"},"modified":"2020-12-09T14:36:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T14:36:18","slug":"zeeba-ansari-reviews-what-woman-want-by-myra-schneider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/zeeba-ansari-reviews-what-woman-want-by-myra-schneider\/","title":{"rendered":"Zeeba Ansari reviews ‘What Women Want’ by Myra Schneider"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Myra Schneider\u2019s pamphlet What Women Want<\/em> is full of riches. The poems are textured with images that keep surprising \u2013 a chair has \u2018a love affair \/ with mustard yellow\u2019 (\u2018Le Vieil Homme Assis\u2019); the speaker \u2018sift[s] feathers of kindness\u2019 (\u2018Need\u2019). There is both attention to detail and an engagement with greater concerns. In \u2018Copthorne Church\u2019, \u2019rain [fills] puddle and sea\u2019; the vast, unknowable \u2018force which rolls through all things<\/em>\u2019 shares equal importance with \u2018the strange beauty \/ of mathematics\u2019. Everything, from the object observed to the personal experienced, becomes a part of the life of these poems. They are conversations, between the poet and herself, and between poet and reader.<\/p>\n

An understanding of human nature, in all its forms, underpins the pamphlet. And, more particularly, the existence of suffering, especially that experienced by women. In the poem \u2018Woman\u2019 the speaker comes, as suppliant, to a \u2018giantess among giant trees\u2019. She is seeking \u2018the mothering I\u2019ve always longed for\u2019. Here is the naked self, asking to be clothed. She is offered not comfort but an appalling history of brutality and degradation. Yet it serves its purpose; it takes the speaker out of herself, prompting her to cry, \u2018What can I do?\u2019 The reply \u2013 \u2018\u201dWoman, you have words. Speak, write.\u201d\u2019 \u2013 represents a defining moment. While introspection is useful and, at times, necessary, true selfhood is achieved through engaging with, and being in, the wider world.<\/p>\n

The transforming power of witness <\/em>lies at the heart of the long poem \u2018Caroline Norton\u2019. Norton\u2019s experience of physical and mental abuse within her marriage led to her intense campaigning about child custody and the conditions of divorce. This determination to translate emotion into action resulted, ultimately, in changes in the law, but at great personal cost. It is clearly a subject the poet feels passionately about, yet the facts of Norton\u2019s life \u2013 often shocking \u2013 are allowed to speak for themselves. There is a sense of contained anger, disciplined by the use of eight-line stanzas; the repetition of \u2018What she did\u2019 (with variation) at the beginning of many of the stanzas reinforces the notion of a determined mind. I found the poem fascinating, and necessary; at its conclusion the focus travels from the past to the present, broadening out into a telling comment on the violence, abuse and misogyny still experienced by women around the world.<\/p>\n

Myra Schneider is a humane recorder of suffering and loss. She observes and participates in the hopes and fears of life. The shadow of elegy \u2013 for people, past time, childhood \u2013 falls across many of the poems; there is a real sense of being present in the past. And yet her outlook, though hard-won, is far from bleak. She refuses an inheritance of \u2018bitter dissatisfaction\u2019 (\u2018Piano\u2019), choosing instead to \u2018make sure every day is a finding\u2019 (\u2018Losing\u2019). There is still joy to be found in this flawed world, gloriously embodied by the two women in the final poem, \u2018Women Running\u2019, going forth with a clear eye and an unclouded heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the beginning was milky skin<\/p>\n

and the warmth of pits \u2013 her mother\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Later there were oranges in groves and red earth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The sky wasn\u2019t swathed in clothes,<\/p>\n

it unrolled its cornflower-blue as far<\/p>\n

as she could see, offered her the sun\u2019s shining eye.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mother had jet-black eyes<\/p>\n

which held the darkness of a well.<\/p>\n

Her words were heavier than buckets of water.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She loved her brothers who ran<\/p>\n

barelegged down dusty roads.<\/p>\n

Often she scampered after them, dipped toes in the river<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and picked berries.\u00a0 Freedom<\/p>\n

tasted good.\u00a0 It made her<\/p>\n

stop her ears to mother\u2019s bitterness, listen to her heart…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today she is buried<\/p>\n

up to her neck in red sand.<\/p>\n

Hard eyes surrounded her and hands holding stones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The blue sky stares down<\/p>\n

on her covered head without pity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too late to start questioning the price of living.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Order your copy of What Women Want,<\/em> from\u00a0 Second Light Publications here<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Zeeba Ansari<\/strong> is a poetry tutor. Her first collection, Love’s Labours<\/em>, will be published by Pindrop Press in July 2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Myra Schneider\u2019s pamphlet What Women Want is full of riches. The poems are textured with images that keep surprising \u2013 a chair has \u2018a love affair \/ with mustard yellow\u2019 (\u2018Le Vieil Homme Assis\u2019); the speaker \u2018sift[s] feathers of kindness\u2019 (\u2018Need\u2019). There is both attention to detail and an engagement with greater concerns. In \u2018Copthorne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4422"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23724,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4422\/revisions\/23724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}