{"id":672,"date":"2010-05-12T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-12T10:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=672"},"modified":"2010-05-12T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-12T10:41:00","slug":"fiona-sinclair-reviews-yes-by-caroline-gilfillan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/fiona-sinclair-reviews-yes-by-caroline-gilfillan\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiona Sinclair reviews 'Yes' by Caroline Gilfillan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, <\/span>by Caroline Gilfillan, <\/span>Hawthorne Press, 2009: \u00a35<\/p>\n

The title of <\/span>Caroline Gilfillan<\/a>\u2018s pamphlet seems to represent the collective affirmation of all her characters who engage in intensely passionate relationships, whether as lovers or friends. What makes the collection so compelling is the presence, in many of the poems of some form of external threat to such bonds. <\/span>

In several works the natural world seems to menace the couples. Indeed in \u2018our island\u2019 the poet effectively uses the landscape of the Hebredian island to physically come between the lovers \u2018\u2018as we lay not sleeping with the island between us.\u2019\u2019 In other poems close friendships are jeopardised by death, a drunken mother and a persistent suitor. Arguably the most powerful sense of threat comes in the extraordinary poem \u2018Cousins\u2019 here a childhood friendship develops into a passionate possibly sexual intimacy that will be ruptured by the girls\u2019 arranged marriages. <\/span>

As well as the couples, there is a third character who dominates the pamphlet, that of the natural world. There are broadly three landscapes, the Outer Hebrides, North America and India.  In the Hebredian poems the landscape becomes a third presence in the pair\u2019s relationship, at times creating an uncomfortable m\u00e9nage a tois.  The poem \u2018Glee\u2019 sees the narrator attacked by territorial birds on a walk then return home to an unsympathetic partner \u2018\u2018I told you not to go that way.\u2019\u2019 leaving us with an uncomfortable sense of him taking sides with nature against her. <\/span>

Gilfillan\u2019s narrators have as innate ability to attune themselves to the natural world even in urban environments, this is evinced by the inclusion of natural imagery in all the poems whatever their context.  \u2018Clark Kent\u2019s\u2019 narrator likens a friend lying on a bed to \u2018\u2018the brindled hounds next door\u2019\u2019.  A simple swim in \u2018Surface Tension\u2019 describes skin as \u2018\u2018cocoa nut \u2013oiled\u2019\u2019 and makes reference to \u2018\u2018a man with hay for hair\u2019\u2019. The most arresting use of such lexis comes in the poem \u2018Cousins\u2019.  To escape their arranged marriages the two girls commit suicide. We are not given a stark description of death here but the natural image of \u2018\u2018Our fingers stretch, touch like spiders hanging from a single thread.\u2019\u2019 The effect is to invite the reader to regard their deaths as a victory as they are translated into something extraordinary. <\/span>

By frequently referencing nature, Gilfillan skilfully shows that it is not something one looks at from a distance, but something to be actively a part of. To press her point, much of the poet\u2019s work here appeals to our senses. We are given the \u2018whiskery kiss of the milkman\u2019s pony\u2019, the taste of earth \u2019on your tongue\u2019, and the sounds of the islands skilfully evoked by accomplished use of sibilance and alliteration. Blackbird song is especially well used as a lament in two poems on loss\u2019 Bubbles\u2019 and \u2018Kindling\u2019. Particularly striking is the image of the bird \u2018twirling his song cap over the fence.\u2019 which captures the joyousness of the song so aptly.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

…….Reviewed by Fiona Sinclair<\/span><\/font>
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

To buy a copy of <\/span>Yes, <\/span>email Caroline Gilfillan on <\/span><\/span>Caroline.Gilfillan@btinternet.com<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, by Caroline Gilfillan, Hawthorne Press, 2009: \u00a35 The title of Caroline Gilfillan\u2018s pamphlet seems to represent the collective affirmation of all her characters who engage in intensely passionate relationships, whether as lovers or friends. What makes the collection so compelling is the presence, in many of the poems of some form of external threat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}