What to Wear

They say you can make a poem out of anything. Jenny Bornholdt’s recent collection bears this claim out – balancing banality of content with whimsicality and a fine appreciation of the everyday world. And I welcome her relatively simple language.

In Forecast, the lines “High pressure / and one weak front.” preface a brief but apt comment on the opposing nature of things. Worry opens with the poet’s state of mind before describing her concerns about disturbing stick insects, remarking about dogs “that veered like thoughts / into a tiny experimental / forest,” and recalling her mother’s preoccupation with the gardens of the world. I loved Spring with its delight in vegetables and the interspersing of flowers and birds – all so true to nature.

Mail is an amusing comment on our times – in this case the potential complexities of receiving letters. The poet’s mother lives in a retirement home, but somehow or other mail for the whole family ends up in her mailbox! “Soon after, we move there. All of us. It seems easiest. We have each other and mail comes as regularly as meal times.” remarks our poet philosophically.

For those who appreciate the esoteric, The London Painters should be a satisfying read. It’s a so-called found poem. For the uninitiated, a found poem is a creative work composed by taking existing words, phrases, or passages from non-poetic sources to create a new poem. In this case, more than 20 names are referenced – some painters and some not – of which I was familiar with perhaps half a dozen. A poem about painters that presents an intellectual challenge to readers.

The title Poem with a hole in it recounts an actual hole that needs to be dug for practical purposes, but our poet can think of only one use for such a deep pit: fill it with words. And she does! It’s a useful vocabulary lesson enshrined in literary form.

As for the collection’s title, we’re no better off, but then neither is our poet!