Review by Andrew Fersch
It isn’t the easiest thing in the world to review poetry without coming off just as pretentious as a great deal of poetry does. And so instead of going the popular route of comparing unknown poets style’s to the purported “masters” of poetry this review will be solely a review of the enjoyability of these two works as they stand alone and compare to one another.
Dawn Potter is a school teacher in Maine and a poet in her spare time. Much of her writing in “Boy Land” focuses on childhood. Elementary school, her father in his rocking chair, violin lessons, and physical awkwardness – in one way or another we can all relate. Much of her writing is straight forward, free of pretense, full of the good and the bad life throws at you (although heavily leaning toward the good). Potter also did a stellar job titling the collection, as although ‘Boy Land’ is just the name of one poem, it is a common theme of many of her poems. She grew up in and lived in a land for boys, a land made up of boys, and the observations of these boys is what she shares amidst a smattering of other topics.
Mekeel McBride, a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire has compiled various works from 1979 to 2006 by year which affords the reader a terrific opportunity to see how she evolved as a poet over the years. It seems that McBride is the polar opposite of most great rock musicians – her best work is her newest. Although there is a little more of a “poetry” feel as one might remember from high school as compared to Potter – wacky seemingly nonsensical sentences thrown in every now and then which, even to an educated reader don’t always seem to make THAT much sense – they are all, dare I say, ‘real’ enough to be enjoyable. Especially with the absolutely terrific ‘Honey’, which is the story of a lone diner who’s overworked waitress goes out of her way to bring cheer to (quite possibly the best poem I’ve read excluding the master himself – Shel Silverstein). This is what poetry was made for, expressing emotions that can’t just be written out – emotions that need to be caressed and smoothed, smashed together and ripped apart.
Of course these wouldn’t be published poetry collections without a few instances of what should be called trying to hard to sound poetic syndrome. All in all though these are two ladies who truly understand that poetry is about expressing emotions, sharing and creating memories, and writing something that evokes feeling from the reader. This is something that most certainly was done throughout both collections.