NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

This is an A5 perfect bound book of word sonnets. Poets for about the last 20-30 years in the UK have produced word sonnets and it has proved to be a very restricting form. It is extremely difficult to produce outstanding word sonnets, worthy of re-reading, as they tend to end up being one or two sentences written vertically with a line count of 14 with the 'so what' factor. Some do have more than one word to a line, but Mayne's word sonnets all have one word to the line as can be seen in DECEMBER FLIGHT:

	These 
	starlings
	swerve
	in
	flocks,
	turning
	their
	frantic
	wings
	towards
	the 
	sun's
	slanting
	light.

	A
	flashback
	of 
	snow
	shadows
	this 
	thick
	lingering
	wind
	and 
	curtain
	of 
	humid
	light.

SEPTEMBER RAIN is Seymour Mayne's 29th volume of poetry since his first collection, THAT MONOCYCLE MOON appeared in 1964. Educated at the Talmud Torah in Montreal, Mayne is now a leading figure in Canadian and Jewish literature. Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Ottawa, Mayne is widely known for his works of literary translation and criticism. Co-founder of the small press Very Stone House, Maine has been dedicated to the promotion of Canadian poetry. His work has been translated into Spanish and Hebrew (he has a strong following in Spain and Israel) and it has recently been proposed that Mayne be considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

With such poetic antecedents, there is a heavy weight of expectation placed upon Maine's recent new offering SEPTEMBER RAIN. Unfortunately it appears that Mayne suffers from the sinecure of success and, in this collection, seems to be resting on his laurels. I'm afraid that this very slim volume (only 52 pages of actual poetry) disappoints. It is competently written, but is light weight and uninspiring — hardly the magnum opus of a Nobel Laureate in waiting.

The book is divided into four sections, the first has a seasonal theme; this is followed by poems about Spain and Israel. The final section is a memento mori, with poems dedicated to a variety of people, including Mayne's parents. One of the most affecting poems comes from this section. In MOTHER'S DAY Mayne writes of his mother's dementia:

	Only broken sentences
	like thin branches
	tremble in the wind
	and all your quick stories
	lie embedded 
	in stone-covered
	forgetfulness
	or silence

 
	Scattering
	above the Puerta
	de Almodovar
	loud
	formations
	of starlings
	rise
	over the palms,
	break into arcs,
	wheel back again
	towards the gravity
	of the tower.

	What secret pain and softness
	do you hide?
	A man could throw
	half his life away
	just to hold you in his arms
	one night through
	to the hastening dawn.

	Hail peppered the air like seed
	as you were lowered
	below the frost line.

	Will your green touch
  
	resuscitate unseen,
	healing
	a winter of silence?

Unfortunately, these poems are in the minority and much of SEPTEMBER RAIN is of a lesser standard. For a poet of such eminence, this is a disappointing collection. However, given Seymour Mayne's prodigious output, we will not have to wait long to discover whether he can regain his form.

HAIL/GRANIZO is a small collection of word sonnets by Seymour Mayne in the original English with Spanish translations in practical classes in Literary Translation, in the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences at the National University of La Plata, Argentina.

Word sonnets are a relatively new form of sonnet, being poems of 14 lines, with each line being made up of only one word. In a sense they combine elements of a traditional English language form with the brevity of Japanese forms such as haiku. Some of the word sonnets in this collection present the reader with beautiful imagery as in SEPTEMBER RAIN/LLUVIA DE SEPTIEMBRE:

	If 
	the 
	maple
	trees
	could,
	they 
	would
	dream
	of
	the 
	healing
	entrance
	of 
	May. 
	
	
	Si 
	los
	arces
	pudieran
	sonar,
	sonarian
	con 
	la 
	llegada
	sanadora
	del
	mes
	de 
	mayo.

I don't speak Spanish, though I understand it broadly by extrapolating from Italian. I can't really therefore comment on the translations other than to say that its interesting to see how words fall differently in the two languages and also to highlight my favourite piece of translation:

	Hail
	peppered
	the
	air

	El 
	granizo
	condimentaba
	el
	aire

I was really pleased to read these poems, as they use a form I have never come across before, which is always interesting.