Poetic Snapshots of Legacies and Connections
The first striking thing to note about Inklings: Poems of the Point and Beyond is the depth of its images, which pull readers into each succinct poem like a snapshot captures the eye with colourful immediacy: "When the harnessed heads of the/Clydes shook, music/tingled the star-startled/night above, and whiskered/hooves sped along the back-/country roads like Pegasus/preparing for flight…"
Readers can see, feel, smell, and taste the scenes being observed, be it the "ear-curdling cry" of one Mrs. Bradley, who transmits her rage at being trapped in an elderly body to the entire village, or the photo of a beloved Gran who looks pensively into the distance on a Sunday morning, "while the Sunday jello cools on the veranda behind her", perhaps reflecting on how she came to be in this place and time, while a grandson looking at this portrait feels the transmission of all that is left unsaid: "I'm left/wondering what courage it took/to abandon your home and say/hello to a far country…".
As the collection evolves, it becomes clear that the "inklings" being described are the remnants of family and their physical and emotional legacies to the next generation and beyond. And what is an 'inkling'? Even this definition uses powerful poetic imagery: "An inkling is a tingle/in the brain, a sprout abruptly/unbudded, the beginning/of a word or more precisely/its first singing syllable…"
These are the moments that define our lives past, present, and future. Like Kodachrome, they are snapshots of what was, is, and could be. As the camera captures the image in its seconds of glory before it fades or transforms, so Inklings captures those connections in life and family before they evolve into something different, bringing free verse poetry readers along for a ride through metaphor and experience.
Succinct in presentation (every word counts) and compelling in its choice of images and life portraits, Inkling's strong voice and propensity for building striking analogy and metaphorical reflections makes it a top recommendation for any free verse reader who wants their poetry filled with astute observation tempered with the reflective powers of a superior attention to atmosphere and detail.
