Kathy Mac’s Battle With Social and Poetic Convention
byHuman Misunderstanding is an ambitious and challenging book
Human Misunderstanding is an ambitious and challenging book
There’s an aphorism for that
Intimate poems that explore the pain of mental illness and heartache with candid vulnerability
One has the sense of entering into a poetry kaleidoscope, where images cycle and shift with the author’s own triggered associations; as he enters the same manly roles his father modelled, the whole male dynamic swirls into varied imagery, emotions, commentary, memories.
MacLaine, like Acorn before him, has helped redefine what it means to be an “Island” or Atlantic Canadian poet: possessing the skill and grace to move artistically from local fire halls and flowering fields to cosmopolitan cities and enduring mythologies.
Shaped by the author’s observations of the natural world and lack of sentimentality, the poems provide a welcome counter to the often-idyllic verse about the vaunted “wonders” of motherhood.