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Poetry and Biography Reviews

Canadace Fertile

Girlwood

by Jennifer Still,

Brick Books, 119 pages, $19.00

Girlwood, Jennifer Still’s second collection of poetry, focuses, as the title suggests, on the lives of girls. And the lives of girls are crazy, confusing, and convoluted. Still matches the subject with the forms of her poetry, which range from long-line poems to prose poems to poems of two short lines to poems with words laid out all over the age. The variety suits the topic, but seems a trifle forced occasionally.

These poems are about girlhood in a particular time. Still mentions numerous consumer products, suggesting that the girls are growing up in the seventies, and so the allusions may not be entirely accessible to all readers—and certainly not to male readers. References to Bonne Bell, Conair hair dryers, Mary Kay, and Nivea, for example, situate the material firmly in a girly world, one in which appearance is crucial. And given that appearance has always been and still is a crucible of learning for girls, the messages underlying the products don’t change even if the products do. Easybake ovens dictate one of the major roles of girls—to become domestic workers, and the make-up and clothing references ensure that girls know their worth is often measured by their physical allure.

Still’s girls try to break free of their mothers, and in doing so often lurch too far in other directions. In “Whirlpool,” the speaker notes, “So we slutted a decade. / Or worse, we didn’t / and still looked like that.” The book makes an arc through girlhood into young adulthood. From toys to make-up to drinking to weddings, Still captures girls’ lives—at least some girls’ lives. These girls are fairly ordinary and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Still is examining the conventional lives of girls, not those of extreme suffering or loss or danger.

The collection is divided into numerous sections, some bearing the title “Track” with a number as on a record or cd, and others with their own titles and then titles of separate poems (or not). The jumbled effect is good as what is more of a jumble than youth, especially the mixed signals girls get and give?

The book has some excellent pieces. “Wedding Cake” is definitely a top-drawer poem. It takes the image of cutting a wedding cake to expose ignorance of the future—the uncertainty of the couple:

The blade is not really there

to cut, only to test

a moment in the lens

when hand upon hand

you don’t know what

you are dividing.

Still has the ability to embed a variety of emotions in a seemingly simple act. That is a gift. But sometimes the conventional is just that: in “Track Four,” the speaker considers careers: “Nurse. check. Pilot. check. Dancer. check. The year Stewardess replaced Model (big decisions) and all this based on a learning I would like to forget: you were smart enough to know you were playing dumb and dumb enough to think this was smart.”

One technique (among many) that Still uses with grace and power is the list. Some poems are essentially lists and others make excellent use of them. “built” is a beautiful list poem that begins “with dandelions in Dixie cups, Cream of Wheat sputter, small bumps, bra bumps, egg cups, ivory lace, with the centre shaped to what is not yet there everything made for what is not yet there . . . ”; the stream of consciousness works perfectly with the list as the connections are made and developed.

Overall, Still does a good job of revealing the ambiguities and uncertainties of girlhood. She juxtaposes her girls against their mothers, with the strong recognition of the bond they share and the moulds the daughters wish to break. While the collection may have a limited audience, its insight is well worth the time.