Girl Talk by Nancy McCleery
141 Pages, Perfect Bound
Cover photo and by Denise Brady
Cover design by Denise Brady
Typesetting and book design by Jeanette Nakada
When It Is Over
The back arches
the arms thrown overhead
then the words
"Your electric days
are in my dying hands"
Hearing this
the face lifts to the sun
falls golden
It is meant for each of us
life in such arms
that when it is over
we go in a cry of passion
Why
are you
casting your line
into fast moving waters
when there
in the small quiet pool
the one in shadow
you are
the one fish
you must catch
Review of Girl Talk by Laurel Johnson, Midwest Book Review
In Girl Talk, poet Nancy McCleery takes the simple premise of two friends talking, then beautifully expands on it. The effect is lyrical and soulful.
The poet's friend is an artist who translates her hopes and beliefs into colorful mediums, much like Ms. McCleery uses words. Their conversations are often blunt, sometimes bordering on the argumentative, but always underlined with the sort of love and respect friends offer in support of each other. In "Girl Talk (AIDS / quilt)" their conversation centers on the artist's friend who died of AIDS. Listening to her friend's reminiscence, watching her create a tribute, the poet says:
"Given a little privacy, I'd have cried."
Simple. Profound. Empathetic. Those words came to mind often as I read Girl Talk. In "Girl Talk (v. monologues) she says:
"Told me about a girlfriend of hers, an artist:
as a child abused head t' toe 'n in between
inside out 'n she's never seen a counselor
but she's workin' with imagery of clenched fists
also of Georgia O'Keefe-like flowers
could be like Tennessee Wiliams' definition:
a bruised orchid his vagina metaphor ..."
Ms. McCleery uses imagery as an artist uses paint, with meanings both obvious and layered in effect. In "My Daughter Brings me Garbage Flowers" :
"Most want the virgin rose buds.
She knows I prefer the blatant,
immodest, blowzy, open blossoms.
Brings them wrapped in pastel tissue papers
holding them in her arms the way
I carried her before she walked."
The friends talk of lovers, of old pleasures and sorrows, of losses and learnings. The poet puts to words what she sees in her friend's metaphorical paintings. In "Girl Talk (tracings)" the subject is a lover's fading interest:
"...but something
(the moon?)
had washed the touch
from his eyes..."
The quote this author uses in introduction seems particularly evocative of her work. The quote is from "Aurora Leigh" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning circa 1857. "Never flinch."
Ms. McCreery does not flinch, which is why her poetry has heart and spirit.
This page last updated: July 28th, 2003
