M.
EARL SMITH Reviews
From Here by Zoe
Skoulding, with illustrations by Simonetta Moro
(Ypolita Press, 2008)
I can’t help but to laugh at the
coincidental timing of this chap. I took a course in my last semester of grad
school about environmental media, and the course, while frustrating and dens,
provided me with some fantastic insight as to how the space and time of an
environment affects the products that are produced therein, including those of
a fine arts scope. I am happy to say that this chap, written eight years before
I dove into such subject matter, does a delightful job of describing the
dystopic in what we would view as a mundane part of the world.
As the poet mentions in her
postscript, this project was born out of a chance meeting at a conference on
psychogeography. The correspondence was done over email, and this work
eventually evolved into a chap. Given the fact that the space involved in this
chap was over two continents and an ocean, it’s delightful to see how the poet
stretches out a small space to reflect the great vastness of our planet. In
poems “I”, “VII”, and “XIII” she mentions the giant land masses, even as she
confines her narrative to a small part of the world that she is recalling,
almost dreamlike, in her work.
That dreamlike quality is what makes
a wonderful contrast to the artwork provided by Moro. While Skoulding will
offer a criticism of the police-state in the mildest of terms (“territorial
integrity softens into rain/as things get cloudy under/cold fronts of
diplomatic pressure” from her poem “VIII”), the artwork that Moro provides is
as stark in it’s presentation as it is in its subject matter. One image, in
nearly-all black and white, shows shadow figures trudging along a brick walkway
as advertisements and chaos swirls along storefronts. From above watch three
security cameras, with one red lens no doubt representing the ever-watching eye
of the police state, a modern-day Big Brother that Orwell could only imagine in
his most orgasmic of nightmares.
Viewing this through a lens of
current events, one must wonder if Skoulding is an oracle of some sort, as even
her mild poetic prose harkens to darker days to come. She speaks of “nations
warping” (“XI”) and “global weather patterns” (“VI”) as if one is chatting
about such cataclysms over a cup of coffee, just as talks of racism and closed
borders and pussy-grabbing have become the new norm, as if such brash language
is boldened by the beasts of our darkened souls. The medias mixed herein
predict a bleak future, one that, ten years after this publication, is playing
out like the passing of two strangers in the night.
*****
M. Earl Smith is a
graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with a Masters of Arts in English
Literature. He currently teaches English at Harcum College in Bryn Mawr,
Pennsylvania, while pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from
Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. His current research
interests include 16th-19th century manuscripts as well
as children’s and young adult literature.
