Journeywoman

Carolyne Van Der Meer

• Publisher: Inanna Poetry and Fiction Series
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781771334501
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Poesia canadese

Journeywoman is the story in poems of the explicitly female journey made by women through girlhood, motherhood and beyond. The play on the word journeyman is intentional with the notion of completing an apprenticeship and seeking mastery of the trade implicit. The actual journey, both physical and intellectual, however, is what brings woman to that state of mastery and Journeywoman, through verse, provides just one itinerary. This unique collection explores the stages of womanhood as defined by this author: the waif, the mother and the crone. It invokes the stories of many to describe the process of mastering the craft of being female, with all its inherent complexities. The actual journey is both physical and intellectual and involves not only the physical alterations a woman undergoes through the changing of stages—the metamorphosing required to achieve mastery—but also true travel, the road embarked upon to achieve enlightenment, the attempt to grasp the intangible, the ethereal, the metaphysical, the disembodied, the sacred.

Buoy on the St. Lawrence

Every July we’d pack the car

drive the 20 minutes

to Rivercrest on Highway 2, take the winding

road through dense forest

honking the horn as we rounded corners

to warn of our passage

We’d reach the cottage

square box with

wooden shutters that we’d hoist up

air out the place

Large sunroom parlour overlooking the river

squares of rattan carpet and wicker chairs

cushioned two-seaters, glass table tops

old movie magazines I flipped through

looking for but never finding Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson

Above it, a huge bedroom, same shuttered windows

at least three beds

where my sister and friend

of the summer would stay

We were nestled in community

other cottages, white siding, green

shutters, New England feel

I remember the names on walkway plaques

The Annex, The Lintons, The Richards—

a clan, owned a cluster of six

just beside ours

But it wasn’t ours

rather the unused and valuable

real estate of Mr. Burns

my mother’s immigration sponsor from the 50s

gave her the keys after his

wife died, said Here, use it

He never joined us

never checked up

We weren’t good enough

for the Richards

They remembered my

mother as the Burns’ nanny

watching over rich James’ kids

swimming with James Jr., lit...