Watch

out
for
Brorwn
by Catherlne
Kenneatty
AIvIEI^A BROIVN'S
New and Se-
lecte d P o er??s app e ared fromWild
and Wootley
(wtrich also
Pub'
lished her last Selectedin I 984, now out of
print) in 1990. The bulk of these poems
are from books ofher
poems published in
the 1970s, withthe 1980s
poems making
up about a quarter. The
previously un-
publishedpoems are fromthe
period 1987
to 1990.
Aft er Pamela Brown'hit
the
ground
running around 1971'
(as
Kate Iennings
put it), she published seven books of pol
ems in ten years. This book includes all
the poems in the 1984 book, some writing
from a prose collection,
andfive newpo-
ems. The first thingto say, then, ls ttrat it's
time we had another new book, since her
latestpoems
are the best, and evenbetter
are some that post-date the five here
(and
which appeared in the magazine Otis
Rnsh), from a ms called This World' This
Plrce.Watch
out for it, whichever corner
it springs from.
(Brown has so far stuck
with small
presses.)
Meanwhile this collectionwill
serve
as an introduction
to herwork,
if neces-
sary. It ought not to be, but the facts are
that, in this countrY, the canons still fa'
vour the men, who can't be trusted to
redress the situation.
(Yet
Penguin saw
no needto insist on one ofthe two editors
of the new antholory
of Modem Austral'
ian Poetry being female.)
Where this is leading
me is to mY
feeling that Brown's 1980s and I 990swork
ls her
treal'
work, or most real to date an4
for me, it's becoming
more real. In an
'eminently
forgiveable
way many of the
early
poems aspire to the condition
of
rock songs and their author to a persona
with boois,
guitar and maybe flick-knife.
They were
genuine coin of the realm at
the tirne, and raise a smile now. fuid they
were a way of striking a balance between
tragic and flip, as the
good songs are:
rolltng rny ow n tobwco cigarettes
storud. a long waY south of ho me.
blown
fwes
malcc the living cold
likc
going up and askingYou
to wlre myheart
topur electrlc dream
(Nevertheless, there's a reference
to HankWliams
to make it a
joke.)
Sometimes there is a willingness
to
settle for the echo of a ballad
('where do
you go / wtren i turn from the tannac'),
r^fiic.h is rarer in later
poems- Some ofthe
from Brown ttre kind of thing she does in
'Rain
Story': no tricks, nothing flashY,
modest imagery
4nd
a lazy piltng up of
documentary
evidence to create a moo{
when lt's verystill
ueryqulet
lllce thts mornlng
i am in mybed
with no cigatettes
theli.ght
enters sidcwaln.
malces snuV sMows
rain, tlp raln
lwanted,
ls ralnlngfor
me
If I were teachfurg a 'creadve
writ-
ing' class I would make a spectacle
of
mlrself over that
poem
('[pok! with no
cigarettcd Could
ynu do that?!
)
.
OccasionallY
a slightlY Linda
Ronstadt stanza
pops up, but not to the
lasting detriment
of the
PoeB.
But in'
creasihgly
the poems are
PepPered
with
'just so'lines: 'ive
talked away / my best
ideas'.
I get excited by that illuslon of un'
selfconCciousness
that comes from clever
documenting
of close self-observation.
The subject appears as a curioslty,
or as
someone else
-
or a nlnne else. Recorded
in tandem with apparently
random in-
tmsions on consciousness
of the not'
self, the result can b e a suc&sfotr.
Pamela
Brown has alwaYs been able to do it.
The
poems let ttremselves
go more,
perhaps, in proportion as ttre
phenom-
6non of being a recognised
woman
poet
becomes notless vexedin itselfbut
ofless
concern. Kate Iennings's
introduction
to
the previo as Sele ctc d Po erts affectionately
identifies the stances adopted to con'
front
pressures 'to be otherwise';
she
thinks-ofBrown
as her own creation. There
is availabletolerurings,
andto ottrer'kick'
ing women', instant idenfiIicadon
with a
period of maturation.
We, wtro had been
bred
(not to be too melodramatic
about
it) as flne victims, hostages to the fame
and forttrnes of men, stnrggled to be oth-
ennrise... kt it be said that this ls our
experience,
also. Take lt or leave it.'
"l\l,ill
we settle for swaYlng trees
ocean sunsets
/ stifled moorxi edipsed
dark mysteries'?
On ttre other han4 'all
those sunsets'
were'qrmbolic
distrac-
f
B
t
,f
l.
d
e
e
3,
a
t-
rs
They were genuine coin of the realm at
the time, and raise a smile now. fuid they
were a way of striking a balance between
tragic and fllp, as the good songs are:
rolling my own tobacco cigarettes
storud. alongway south ofhorne.
blownfitses male the livingcold
like
gotng up and askingyou
to wlre myheart
to
lnur
electrlc dreatn
(Nevertheless, ttrere's a reference
to HankWliams to make it a
joke.)
Sometimes there is a willingness to
setfle for the echo of a ballad
('where
do
you go / wtren i ttun from the tarnrac'),
which is rarer in later poems. Some ofthe
very earlypoems allowyouto see the poet
play'rng around with the mechanics of
assoclation, the look of the words on ttre
page:
I arn close to
wu?
iamclosedtoo.
iamcloser to
Inlater
poems the playing around
blends in, becomes fusedwiththe result
A tlrpical stance is ttre self-ldenti-
fied'tough
poet image', and in the earlier
poems this is sometlmes blendedwith a
Dylanesque, declamatory/accusatory
straln:
yulurrhtogether
on the
febrtle
utastelands
ofyurlives.
A line such as 'ttte maniac moon
mocks
you / as your fingernails screech
on the windord mightbe deliberatelyover
the top, but the reader's not sure. Don't
get me wrong. I'm not preparing for a
eulogy on moderation in middle age.
There's no improving on some ofthe very
early poems for wit and energy and dex'
terity. The trying on of hats and voices
shbuldbe visible in the documentation of
twentyyears'
practice ofthe profession of
poetry. I'm tryingto identifywhere it'sled
and why I like ttre recent results. It's an
indication of personal taste ttrat Ilike best
the previo us Sele cte d Po e ms affectionately
identifies ttre stances adopted to con'
front pressures 'to be otherwise'; she
thinks ofBrown asherown creation. There
is available tolennings, andto ottrer'kick-
ing
women', instant identilication with a
period of maturation.'\Me, who had been
bred
(not
to be too melodramatic about
it) as flne victims, hostages to the fame
andfortunes of men, stnrggledto be oth-
erwise... Let it be said that this 7s our
experience, also. Take lt or leave it.'
Will we settle for swayfung trees
ocean sunsets / stifled moons eclipsed
dark mysteries'? On the other han( 'all
those sunsets' were'symbolic distrac-
dons'. In any case, like the lady says, this
is orrexperience. I feel entirely'spoken
to' by'The longYears', the linal poem in
this selection. Equally affecting are its
content and its assurance. It does ad-
dress a reader, comfortably and
unspecifically, the invocation form hold-
ing the pieces ofthe poem together with-
out personalising it particularly, even
though the references to shared memo-
ries iue quite precise. It begins:
T?ps e ar e t?w lo ngyears and thes e yaars
are the yearc which pss qubkly.
These are the mlddleyaar*
Iots of writers shy away from the
crucial task of figbting offsentimentality
fromits allottedpreseres. It's evenharder
for women, riho have to battle expecta-
tions that they will gravitate to weepy
ttremes and deal with them wimpily or
wtrimsically. Where male poets may be-
come arch or sententious or talk of an-
cient Rome, women might be forgiven for
collecting their bats and balls and going
home, Pamela Brownr thankfully, lives
'In This Place', and will reconstitute it
professionallyforwomen and men of dis-
cernment
inthis
srnall co rutructb n stte
of apoem
tr
20