NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
KIRSTY KARKOW: WATER POEMS
Black Cat Press
613 Okemo Drive
Eldersburg
Maryland 21784
USA
ISBN 0 9766407 0 8
$15.95

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A subsquent collection is SHORELINES (Black Cat Press ISBN 0 9766407 5 9).

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KIRSTY KARKOW: WATER POEMS

WATER POEMS is a collection that evokes beautifully the sea and shorescapes of Maine:

 
	not a whale ...
	the dark bank of seaweed
	rises on each swell

		paddling briskly
		the high-water mark
		drawn with snow

	twilight at sea —
	homebound trawlers tow
	long shadows
The book is full of such finely received images — transferred to the page with great craft. Ms Karkow's work has a gentle vigour; each 'action' emerging unforced from its particular catalyst. These poems reflect with integrity the poet's commitment to her, as yet, untrammelled environment:
	salt marsh
	a moose lifts antlers
	dripping with weeds

		ice moon
		long-haired ponies turn
		tail to the wind
Ms Karkow is equally skilled in the art of tanka and sijo — a form originating in Korea. An interesting form which allows for a greater lyricism, having three long lines which depict three distinct shades of meaning within the poem. Western poets tend to split the lines into six:
	Terns and gulls line both rails, 
		the pier white with their waiting.
	Gray beaks face the northeast gale,
		steady as weather vanes in pewter. 
	A cold front! Why do they pause? 
		The wind would help them southward.
The poet's quietly passionate sense of place is very much evidenced in the following tanka:
	loons live here 
	countless lilies, otters, 
	a beaver dam ... 
	his voice grows soft with sharing
	lake lore learned from childhood
WATER POEMS is a beautifully produced little book. Ms Karkow's charming front cover watercolour is aptly chosen.

reviewer: Michael Bangerter