#Poetry Ciaran Carson

Hare Bowl, Jeffrey Morgan (2002)

MARCH

by Ciaran Carson

Finish date:   05  March 2022
Genre: Poetry
Rating: A+++++
Review: Still Life (ISBN: 978-1930630918)

Personal introduction:  These poems moved me, surprised me, delighted me. After Ciaran Carson (1948-2019) had been told his lung cancer was terminal…he wrote his last book. Still Life  is a set of 17 meditations on paintings. The publisher delivered the finished book to his family just after Ciaran died (1948 – 2019). When I learned about Carson’s personal circumstances I wondered with all the themes and things to write about….. what does a dying man choose to be in his last book? What did Carson want to share with us?

Good news: For people who don’t read poetry…you can read these poems as if they were emails (letters) sent to you. There is more rhythm and pattern than rhyme.

Good news: This poetry collection was just a delight to read. The book felt like a visit to a museum with a good friend. You know, just meandering along the paintings and exchanging your thoughts or memories to a welcoming ear. The freedom to share just any observation from the shadows of yellow daffodils, the jiggles or jabs of a brushstroke (Monet)….to a coagulating egg white in the kitchen of a bodega. (Velazquez)

Bad news: Carson includes 3 poems on paintings by N. Poussin. I found this a bit too much… the 3 images were semi-dark mythical scenes and the comments were lackluster. There are so many other artists he could have chosen…missed opportunity.

Good news: I was introduced to Belfast artists: Gerard Dillion, Basil Blackshaw and James Allen Blackshaw (..his “Windows I-V” was Carson’s choice. IMO Carson  should have highlighted the artist known for his impressive studies on windows: Maitsse.
Reading recommendation Henri Matisse Rooms with a View. REVIEW
by Shirley Neilsen Blum (no photo)

Basil Blackshaw DID impress me with his portrait of Brian Friel  (Irish playwright).

James Allen…I love the colors he uses, the shades of 1960s Neapolitan ice-cream that remind me of David Hockney. (House With the Palm Trees)

Personal: This is not just a book of poetry…it is a lesson in art history with a whiff of the of the everyday-ness in life. The only sad note is…the poet knows his end is near.
The artists chosen 5 from France, 3 from No. Ireland, 2 from England, and 1 each from Italy, Wales, Spain and Belgium. I was MOST impressed by the life and paintings of French artist Yves Klein…a world of Madonna blue, Chagall blue, duck-egg blue….just beautiful! If you have the time it is worth looking at his Wikipedia page.

NOTES:

Poem nr 1: Claude Monet, Garden at Vetheuil (1880)

1. I read it in the morning while having my morning smoothie.
2. My view was a gray rainy scene…not a flourish of colors as in Monet’s garden.
3. The knowledge that the end was coming for Ciaran Carson… permeates Still Life.
4. One sentence spoke to me.
5. “How strange it is to be sitting here listening to whatever it is going on.
6. The days are getting longer now, however many of them I have left.”
7. That is exactly what I did…I just listened to whatever was going on in my garden.

Poem nr 2:  Angela Hackett, Lemons on a Moorish Plate (2013)

1. I read this poem in the dentist’s waiting room. I keep following John Adams motto:
2. “You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.
3. You will never have an idle hour.”
4. I had NO visual and that made the poem fall flat. After seeing the painting
5. I read the poem again.
6. Ciaran Carson sees so many colors in the image…
7. I would have missed!

Poem nr 3:  Velázquez, Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618)

1. Carson describes the painting of a Spanish bodégon
2. …(Spanish for ‘still life’) and it reminds him of his time in
3. The Bodega in Belfast where Carson went with friends
4. …while the IRA were bombing downtown shops on a weekly basis.
5. This is the sentence that sums up the core message of this poem.
6. Carson only uses a part of the original quote by Keats in Ode to a Nightingale:
7. “That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,“
8. …but Keats’s  adds a second line that Carson knows…but is not mentioning`:
9. …And with thee fade away into the forest dim…
10. Carson reminds us yet again…the end is near and
11. …he would like to enjoy a drink with friends in
12. The Bodega in Belfast so that he can leave the “world”
13. …without anyone noticing and just “fade” into the dark forest.