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POET REVIEWED: |
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As you may have just noticed, Maggie Dubris is one of the best lyrical poets writing today. After you read Weep Not My Wanton, this will not surprise you. What will catch you off guard is how someone can write like that and be grounded in the gritty urban reality of working as an EMS medic in Times Square, New York, which she does. Her lyrical line reminds one of say the urban landscapes painted by Marjorie Portnow or Rackstraw Downes. Nothing is left out or hidden but the voice doing the describing is not an ordinary voice. Or as the title of one of her short stories says; You Can't Spell Mess without E-M-S. Maggie Dubris writes in a world of parallel universes. She might give you a line like;
But she might just as likely send you reeling into a private reverie with lines like;
These are lines to live in, learn from, dream with. In an era of flat footed description passing itself off as poetry, Maggie Dubris has resuscitated the lyrical poetic form. In WillieWorld, which comprises the middle section of the book she takes us along with her in the ambulance and shows us;
But as she travels through this world, we learn about her too;
Or she tells us;
She concludes;
The poems and the interspersed prose sections of WillieWorld breathe together to reveal insights in layers and the reader is rewarded by reading sections multiple times. She shares amusing information with us in some of the short stories. One example is how a poet can earn a living as a janitor in a massage parlor or as an ambulance driver, but unlike someone preaching, she parts the curtain and lets us see for ourselves;
There is an echo of the Irish folklorist in her work especially in the masterful long poem, which comprises the third section of the book, entitled Toilers Of The Sea. Ms. Dubris has an ironic sense of humor that keeps us and we suspect, her, going. As the Irish say, "God loves someone who tries," and Maggie Dubris keeps trying. While tragedy is constant in her work as a medic in Times Square, the metaphysical queries she poses as an artist, give us hope, consoles us that life goes on if we stop judging it long enough to take it in. The title of the book, which is also the title of the first section, occurs twice in her 70-page epic poem, Toilers Of The Sea. It appears toward the end of book one, section one, almost as a warning;
and in the second section almost in resignation as the same quatrain is followed by the lines;
While she may not weep, she does something equally powerful by memorializing the infirm and forgotten patients whose lives she has added some measure of comfort to. And because the author is compassionate without being sentimental, we hold her truths close to our heads and hearts.
It must be said that while the poem, Toilers Of The Sea, does not attempt to mirror the book by Victor Hugo, from which it draws its title and section titles, there are parallels to Hugo's hero Gilliat who endures against the sea with no one to rely on but himself. There is a remarkable ingenuity at work here, and it is clear that the protagonist in the poem must rely on herself. To highlight this, the poem shifts from turn of the century third person to a modern day autobiographical first person account of the author¹s family and thoughts. There are two compelling lists which appear in each era. In the first historical section are two lists of birds which became extinct before the heroine was born and those which became extinct during her lifetime. In the second section we are invited to consider the men who vanished before the author was born and the men who vanished or died on the street during her lifetime. The first list of men were inventors, musicians, and minor historical characters but the second list are men, some of whom appear in short stories earlier in the book, that the author has seen vanish from the streets during her career as a medic, most of whom ended up buried in Potter's Field. By writing about them she has memorialized them in print. Never far away is the relief of the lyrical voice transforming these sad tales;
She incorporates other narrative material from the short stories of driving an ambulance;
Finally, the poem ends with a description of The Great Tomb, a self styled time capsule of Maggie Dubris which concludes that she will be happiest when her remains are;
Luckily for us, Maggie Dubris is still very much in this world and she brings the poet's vision and voice to it. Anyone sitting down with this book will gladly follow her journey. You can trust her to get the story right.
Weep Not My Wanton is divided into three sections. The
first, from which
—Vicki
Hudspith |
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Copyright © 2002 by Vicki Hudspith.
Material may not be reprinted without prior written permission.