This is a contribution to Margaret Atwood Reading Month, hosted by Buried in Print. Happy Margaret Atwood’s birthday!
I really enjoy poetry, from ancient to contemporary, but I often neglect to pick it up. So MARM was a perfect opportunity to get back to reading it, as I had a copy of Atwood’s volume Dearly (2020), with its striking cover of iridescent feathers, in the TBR.
Dearly was written between 2008-2019 and includes a lot of Atwood’s enduring concerns: the natural world; the destruction of the planet; power structures that are imposed on others. There is also consideration of aging and death, and the volume is dedicated in absentia to her partner of many decades, Graeme Gibson, who died in 2019.
Atwood’s poetry is so accessible. She is an acute observer which suits poetry, and she conveys this without impenetrable allusion or obscure metaphor. In Salt she layers a series of images in evoking the past:
“Once in a while there was a pear or plum
or a cup with something in it,
or a white curtain rippling, or else a hand.
Also the mellow lamplight
in that antique tent,
falling on beauty, fullness,
bodies entwined and cherishing,
then flareup, and then gone.”
It was her consideration of aging and loss which appealed to me most in this volume, and there are some beautifully tender poems, full of love without sentimentality. In Blizzard:
“My mother, sleeping.
Curled up like a spring fern
although she’s almost a century.
I speak into her topmost ear,
the one thrust up like a wrinkled stone
above the hills of the pillows:”
And of course her titular poem, about shifts in language entwined with personal loss, which if you click the last link in this post you can hear her read. Her deep love for her life partner resonates throughout this volume, written before he died but filled with the anticipatory grief his dementia diagnosis gave rise to. Mr Lionheart in particular I found so moving, weighing what is being lost and what remains, for both the person with dementia and those who care for them:
“There’s birdsong, however,
from birds whose names have vanished.”
Before she concludes:
“Lions don’t know they are lions.
They don’t know how brave they are.”
What I haven’t captured here is Atwood’s characteristic wit and warmth, but rest assured it is here! There are poems that conclude with pithy lines, making me smile more than once. She is clever and funny and entertaining. Published just before she turned 81, in Dearly she is as engaged with the modern world and engaging as ever.
I found this essay about writing Dearly which includes Margaret Atwood reading the titular poem, so I highly recommend heading there for a read and listen.
To end, from Zombie:
“The hand on your shoulder. The almost-hand:
Poetry, coming to claim you.”
madame bibi lophile recommends 
I already have a copy of this reserved at the library (thank to kaggsy’s review), so I was especially interested to read your thoughts on this. I am looking forward to collecting the book all the more now! Thank you for linking in that essay; it was lovely to discover the inspiration and background for the poems. I found it very moving, just as I did the poems.
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I hope the library loan comes in soon and you really enjoy the volume! It is very moving as you say. She conveys so much love and a lot of grief and pain, but is never sentimental. It’s a wonderful tribute to Graeme Gibson too.
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I haven’t read any of MA’s poetry so this will be an education and delight; I love the opening quote, so true (but we all think so, so who are the grown ups?!)
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Good point Jane – who are the grown ups, and where are they?!
I really hope you enjoy her poetry when you get to it.
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Lovely review Madame B, and I agree that it’s such a marvellous collection. Atwood’s poetry is accessible yet carries so much depth to it – I found I was suddenly emotionally winded by some of her lines. And thanks for the link to the essay, I had somehow missed that!
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Yes absolutely! She’s so good at writing clearly but not diminishing what she’s saying at all.
The essay is really interesting, I hope you enjoy it 😊
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Lovely poem and she reads it so beautifully too – thanks for linking to it. I see the whole collection is available as an audiobook, all read by her…
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I didn’t know that, it sounds perfect! Some writers are terrible at reading their own work, but as you say, she does it so well,
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You have selected such beautiful passages, capturing some of the varied tones and styles as you describe so well. I love the contrast between spring fern and wrinkled stone in the poem about her mother, so accessible as you’ve said. Lovely touch, too, including the link to her reading. And posting on her birthday, also! Nice.
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I’m so glad you liked the chosen passages!
I really enjoyed the essay and her reading, I was pleased to have found it. Somehow I missed it at the time of publication.
Thank you for hosting MARM! Always a lovely event and it got me to pick up some poetry for a change too 🙂
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That’s why I love events: they encourage me to read the things that I say I like to read but, somehow, don’t naturally incorporate into my reading plans!
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