{"id":920,"date":"2010-12-09T17:57:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T17:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=920"},"modified":"2010-12-09T17:57:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T17:57:00","slug":"fiona-sinclair-reviews-inside-the-brightness-of-red-by-mary-macrae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/fiona-sinclair-reviews-inside-the-brightness-of-red-by-mary-macrae\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiona Sinclair reviews 'Inside the Brightness of Red' by Mary MacRae"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inside the Brightness of Red<\/span><\/a>. Mary MacRae. Second Light Publications, 2010. \u00a38.95.<\/span>

This is a posthumous collection of Mary MacRae\u2019s poetry.  Many poems were written whilst she was in remission from cancer.  Inevitably this has influenced the work. This is not to say it is morbid  – quite the contrary, MacRae\u2019s personas live for the moment whether it be to contemplate a painting or an exquisite flower.  <\/span>

Many of the poems have the quality of a still life. Yet the gorgeous descriptions of the natural world are frequently couched in a spiritual lexis. Thus in the poem \u2018Daffodils\u2019 the flowers are described as having \u2018\u2018papery halos in tact\u2019\u2019 and are \u2018\u2018attendant, waiting for us somewhere in the wings like angels.\u2019\u2019 However this particular poem is the only one to explicitly reference a Christian God, generally there is an absence of formal religion.  Instead MacRae\u2019s narrators seek some kind of pantheistic force that connects all life, resembling in their desire, the ideals of the Romantic poets.  <\/span>

Through out the collection MacRae returns to the theme of unfulfilled fertility both in the natural and human world.  \u2018Pomegranate\u2019 deals with a plant that flowers \u2018\u2018too far north too late\u2019\u2019. The poet\u2019s skill here is to show the glorious potential of the plant at the beginning of the poem immediately contrasting it in the second half with lexis of death as the fruit fails \u2018\u2018black on black\u2019\u2019 becoming \u2018\u2018 just scuffed purses and a few dry seeds\u2019\u2019. The descriptions become increasingly anthropomorphic:  \u2018\u2018twin embryos of glistening flesh\u2019\u2019, \u2018\u2018red cells\u2019\u2019 \u2018\u2018skin tucked tight to the wall\u2019\u2019 suggesting, a menopausal reflection on a loss of fertility. This is further developed by the middle aged narrator in \u2018Virgin and Child\u2019 who observes a picture of the Madonna and feels \u2018\u2018years past ovulation\u2019\u2019 the \u2018\u2018vital second the sperm find the egg\u2019\u2019. <\/span>

There are many tender love poems amongst the collection. They are rendered all the more touching by their narrators\u2019 \u2018\u2018old need to know where love goes once we\u2019re outside time\u2019\u2019 One solution is found in memory, as characters sustain their relationships with the dead by recalling \u2018\u2018ghostly perfume lingering in threadbare curtains and sheets\u2019\u2019 or visiting \u2018\u2018the shore where I speak to my mother, whose voice I\u2019ll never hear but who always listens,\u2019\u2019. Time recurs throughout the work both as a word and a concept. There is an almost Keatsian need to outwit it and acquire some kind of immortality. Here the poems focusing on paintings are utilised. Not only do they comment on the narrative of the image itself but it becomes clear that for MacRae, a painting much like a poem achieves for its author a kind of immortality. <\/span>

In the poems that deal explicitly with terminal illness, MacRae remains true to herself as an artist. Whilst cancer enters the narrative the work is neither self pitying or lurid. Some of the most touching poems deal with long nights of insomnia, when \u2018\u2018Time's slipped its leash and is running wild in the dark. \u2019\u2019 The persona courageously using memories of music or the image of a woodpecker in the garden to \u2018\u2018distract me from my fear\u2019\u2019  <\/span>

The natural world forms a poignant comparison to the narrator\u2019s predicament in these last poems. The description of Spring wood- anemones in \u2018Blue Material\u2019, contrasts sharply with the  matter of fact tone that goes on to inform us \u2018\u2018I\u2019ve made my will and thrown out all the old clothes I don\u2019t wear\u2019\u2019.  This unsentimental description of setting her affairs in order suggests that the action itself is part of the natural order of things.<\/span>

This collection represents the summation of a poet who remarkably only wrote poetry for ten years. The poems reveal MacRae to be a technically accomplished poet able to use rhyme effectively and tackle differing forms including sonnet and villanelle with skill. Her lyricism and subject matter places her in the tradition of the Romantic poets. Works such as \u2018The Smile\u2019, \u2018Ghazal: In the Dark\u2019 and \u2018Yellow Marsh Iris\u2019 deserve to be re-read and remembered. <\/span>
<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

Inside the Brightness of Red. Mary MacRae. Second Light Publications, 2010. \u00a38.95.This is a posthumous collection of Mary MacRae\u2019s poetry.  Many poems were written whilst she was in remission from cancer.  Inevitably this has influenced the work. This is not to say it is morbid  – quite the contrary, MacRae\u2019s personas live for the moment […]<\/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-920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920","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=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}