Every
Day is an Act of Resistance: Selected Poems by Carol Tarlen,
edited by David Joseph and Julia Stein (copyright 2012 Mongrel Empire
Press), is a fitting tribute, and homage to Tarlen; poet, mother,
activist, and compassionate human being.
In Every
Day, each poem is infused with the daily life of Tarlen, and vice
versa. Tarlen was a poet who lived with her shields down, and, in the
tradition of Blake and Whitman, breathed poetry as easily as air; her
poems are full of vitality, and, decidedly non-magical, as one would
expect from a working-class poet. However, there is a delicacy to her
work, a sensitive strength, which takes Tarlen's poems out of the
category of “working-class,” which may be, along with her
background, puts her in class by herself. Tarlen's poems evoke the
beauty of a wrought-iron fence: strong, detailed, and, starkly
exquisite, as in the poem, “To a Young Dancer”:
You cant
bend your knees,
So you cry
at night, while
I pound
language from a
machine.
“I'm sorry”
is an empty
sound, not worth
legs gone
mute. In this
Chinese
year of the horse,
we don't
speak of justice,
or that you
been named
snake. The
doctor says
Quit the
dance, but I'm your
Mother,
and I say, CRAWL,
Light
circling your new skin,
as you
slide to center stage.
Tarlen, a
Bay Area poet, was not able to achieve the level of success that most
of her peers. Co-editor Julia Stein, who wrote the moving forward for
Every Day, described Tarlen as a “North
Beach Emily Dickenson.” Tarlen was widely published in literary
magazines and anthologies, but was not able to secure a publisher to
put out a full-length collection of poetry during her lifetime. That
is where the difference ends. Poetry publishers, are no different
than other publishers who have to think in terms of dollars and
cents, but, more than likely, were intimidated by the frankness of
subject matter of Tarlen's work. Seriously, who wants to read about a
woman's struggle to come to terms with violence and violation, as in
the powerful poem “Arguments With a Would-be Rapist?” Or, who
wants to be reminded of the struggle to make ends meet as in the
poem, “Welfare Rights,” or, be gently admonished by Tarlen into
remembering that every person, no matter what their circumstances, is
infused with the spark of the divine, as in the poem “As an Angel
Glimpsed by Blake”:
Standing
near the doorway of a steel-
encased
office building, the man
in the
worn, black suit
wipes the
soil from his frayed, white
starched
cuffs and waits
for his son
to enter, eyes lowered,
as the man
too, lowers his eyes.
This is the
best he has,
the poverty
he wears, his empty hands
a gift of
shame for a son
who looks
away.
I see the
old man
in a
darkened theater,
an image
superimposed on scenes
of a filmed
revolution,
slipping
between shadows that fall
on
slogan-plastered walls.
He is my
vision, my DNA chain;
I circle my
wrists with his hunger
that
shimmers beneath my skin
translucent
like a bleached jellyfish
on
oil-slicked sand.
The answer
to the above questions is that I would, as well as others who can
look beyond the appellate “working-class,” will appreciate the
depth of feeling, and power of Tarlen's work.
Every
Day is an Act of Resistance: Selected Poems by Carol Tarlen,
(copyright 2012 Mongrel Empire Press, www.mongrelempire.org) edited
by David Joseph and Julia Stein, ISBN 978-98330529-3, 63 pages, $14.
©
article content 2013 marie lecrivain
©
poems 2012 Carol Tarlen