DARKNESS ON LIGHT
This first volume of poems by Mary Pargeter is an exquisite feast of childhood memories, states of love, and reflections on life. She writes with the lightness of petals falling on water, yet underscoring the mildness is an honesty that surprises because of its extraordinary intensity.
Pargeter, a successful graphic designer, is not afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve. Winter Daffodils lays bare the reality of the “sparse return” from a relationship that was “fatally destined to fail”, while in Your dark Doorway she is the victim wounded by “the cut of betrayal” from a lover’s treachery.
There is pain from the loss of the adored mother who was “as near to a girl as I remember you”: the wistful yearning for a time of innocence when Pargeter was the village girl “on the windswept hill”: and the admission of “careless cruelty” towards a former partner, with the pleading hope he will remember the past “without bitterness”.
Her openness is disarming, yet it’s that very quality which gives Mary Pargeter’s writing a lasting, appealing resonance.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
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BETWEEN DARK AND LIGHT
Journey in Shades is an invitation in verse from British Poet Mary Pargeter into the light and dark of her memories. The 32 poems have been slotted into four categories, (Childhood, Love, Death, Reflection), and they are among some of the most heartfelt writings I have read to date. Trauma, pain, beauty and romance are the places you’ll visit with this wonderful book. It’s also poignantly contemplative with subtle references to the future and touches of sly wit.
Pargeter’s childhood memories of the English countryside were some of the happiest of her life although they were interrupted when the family swapped the rural idyll for a cramped house in urban Surrey. She resented the move but has remained loyal to what was left behind and the memories of that time seem as fresh today as the moment when they were set.
‘Wildflowers mixed under hazel bows in the dappled shade’, from the poem “Chalk Lane to School”, brings a stunning visualization to the simplicity of nature’s abundance. Her words are so beautifully crafted that we feel as if we are standing with her, drawing in the exquisiteness of the landscape. Pargeter is a sensory poet who heightens our perceptions with haunting imagery that captures the beauty of a moment, a sentiment neatly expressed in the opening line of the poem Soft Dust:
‘Warm eggs hanging in hessian sacks as small fingers feel for smoothness in the straw.’
That openness to nature finds its parallel in the honesty she has brought into her life. She has loved with passion yet is also brave enough to admit that she didn’t always play fair:
‘Felled by my infidelity, the consequence of unreciprocated love.’
There is an admission of cruelty towards a lover yet relief in the words ‘At last we are finished’ when he marries someone else. The directness of the statement is overwhelming in much the same way as the grief that followed the death of her mother. I cried after reading ‘The Hospital Room’ where Pargeter saw the “gaunt profile” of her mother “in silhouette against a grey sky window”. The face that “smiled in welcome” is frozen in blankness while the hands that had once gathered a daughter in the sweep of unconditional love are “stilled beneath the draped sheet”. Everything about this poem felt intensely personal. As a mother it made me think about the future and the relationship I have with my son.
Pargeter’s mother is the line that runs through many of these poems while her father, a man who had been incarcerated in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, is a figure of isolation. He is the brooding presence that his daughter struggled to understand, the unwelcome intrusion into the “airy, cool hush of a country afternoon” that violates with its “own personal Hell”.
There is wisdom in Pargeter’s writing and bursts of wry, laconic humour. In “Goodbye Rob”, a tribute to the dead father of a friend, she juxtaposes his flaws with his virtues. Rob is the “handsome devil”, the “wisecracker” with the irresistible “pencil thin tash” and “Hello blue eyes” chat up line. Against this is the “cynic”, the “melancholy depressive” who could drink his way through a bar yet arrive on time “For tea at Kennards”. I enjoyed both the humour and pictorial quality of this poem along with its dash of the pen rhythm. Rob may not have been perfect but he was still a likeable guy!
In the Poem “When the Wind Blows” Pargeter strolls back in time to when she was “that village girl” on “the windswept hill” staring into the “patchwork of fields beyond”. To be young, free and innocent without the burden of life’s responsibility, is a yearning that resonates with most of us. It’s fitting this
poem should appear in the “Reflection” category as it is written from the perspective of an older woman who accepts the past as a comfort that can also imprison.
I found it difficult to put this book down as Mary Pargeter’s writing is addictive. After reading it I almost felt lost, as if I was saying goodbye to a friend who had spent a day baring her soul to me. To find a poet who can strike an instant connection is rare and maybe that’s why she has inspired me to do something I haven’t done for a long time: write my own thoughts on paper.
Reviewed by Katherine May
MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS
Mary Pargeter’s Journey in Shades is a collection of poems divided into four parts: Childhood, Love, Death and Reflection. She invites us to follow her through each of those paths and the beauty of that journey never falters.
The reflections in Childhood engender a sense of wonderment and innocence, all of which ring true to the experience of a particular social environment.
In Love there is a strong affinity to the times of youth. I was particularly struck by the vivid descriptions in the poem Loch Awe. Being already familiar with the climate and geographical location, the prospect of ‘skinny dipping’ in those chilly waters was a fairly brutal thought. The poem had a real sense of time and place.
In Death, Pargeter relives the intense sense of loss when a loved one passes away. It is a hugely personal experience and it takes enormous courage to unlock difficult memories that are overshadowed by sadness.
Reflection appears to be an attempt to bring everything of the journey into a final focus and in my view, she does this impressively. I particularly enjoyed the frank assessment of the poem I Have Not Always Been Kind. Country Childhood gave a touching glimpse into a rural childhood while Little Feet was a concluding perspective on the journey.
I’ll be looking out for any further works by this author and I hope that she can capture other themes with equal success.
Reviewed by John Gibson
THE PAST ENLIGHTENS
Journey in Shades is Mary Pargeter’s collection of short poems which tell the story of her life. Her words are both starkly honest and evocative enough to send the imagination wandering.
The power of Mary’s poetry lies in her choice to tell the truth, to not glamorise the events of life, and to criticise herself as well as others. Structurally, the collection is divided into four sections, which represent a movement from childhood, to a loss of innocence, to pain-filled grief, to looking back and learning from mistakes. The poems are divided by section, but also by tone and language.
Childhood
This first set of poems is full to bursting with natural description, and feelings of wilderness with “the field of long grass for hiding and crawling” and the “beech tree roots” which “entwine above badger and rabbit hollows”. The overarching feeling of running freely through fields, which permeates these very early poems, reflects the freedom of childhood, of being innocent and not yet understanding life’s pains.
Loss of this wholesome freedom starts to emerge in these childhood poems as the young girl is exposed to the difficulties her parents face. Her father has recently returned from four years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, experiencing “his own personal hell”, which then violates the “gentility” of his wife, and the girl’s mother. In this same poem, entitled ‘near a girl’, the speaker also notes the hardships of her aunt, “war killing her lover, childbirth killing your mother”. This loss of innocence is clearest in the final poem of the section, where the girl asks “why are you crying my gentle mum” and her mother pleads, “not yet…her loss of innocence”.
Love
The next section follows the girl as she experiences her first loves, and, as time goes on, finds relationships difficult.
Love is, at first, passionate and spontaneous. In the first poem, the speaker is certain “you are sharp and clear in my vision”, and the majority of the piece is made up of listing her lover’s features, “your teeth whiter, your laugh louder”, emphasising the strength of her emotions.
Even these initial poems hint at the sadness to come, however. After “we fell into the grass laughing” the present voice interjects, “like pale ghosts I see us now”.
The following poems convey how the speaker has had her heart broken, and broken hearts herself. You Could Leave, one of my personal favourites and only 5 lines long, states
You could leave if you promised not a trace of you would remain but my mind is weak with your barren love and I should be destroyed.
This is a simple, logical truth, yet the words are beautiful and lasting.
As the section draws to a close, the tone becomes more pessimistic, and the language darker, speaking of hope to desolation and the cut of betrayal. This provides a smooth transition into the next part, as the speaker deals with the grief of her life’s traumas.
Death
Mary had to face grief at a young age, as both of her parents died when she was in her twenties. This section therefore deals with grieving for lost romance, and for lost family. Words capture the raw sadness and unacceptance of loss. The speaker is trying to keep her loved ones alive through poetry, describing her ex-partner, Rob’s, personality in such detail that it is as though he is there. This feeling is particularly present in At the Wake, when the speaker cannot come to terms with death because there is still “gin and tonic standing on the mantlepiece”. She feels like Rob will just walk back in any moment, and cannot accept his death just yet.
Reflection
Reflection is when the speaker accepts all of life’s happenings, both the ups and downs, that have been previously depicted. She begins bravely by admitting “I have not always been kind” and revealing her own faults and mistakes. Lost love, she realises, is greatly down to her, & “you did not deserve my careless cruelty”. Instead of passion, heartbreak and anger, however, she now accepts her past, and maturely says, “I hope you found love”, as if speaking to the lover that she hurt.
The speaker is more level-headed now. She smiles softly at young couples in love, looking back on this time in her life, and knowing that she no longer has this. It is not pessimistic though. She finds comfort from these memories. And anyway, Mary’s words could apply to both those who never married, like herself, and couples who have spent their lives together, and who’s love has changed from wild and passionate, to more comforting and companionship.
The collection ends in tranquillity. Mary returns to her childhood, ‘little feet neat in shoes and socks’, still mourning for the loss of her parents, but in a more peaceful way,
‘I visit my Mother’s grave, quite far, and pull at stray grasses’.
She repeats that ‘I have not always been virtuous’, deciding now to ‘take [her] bruises and shaky faith back to church and search for peace’.
Mary’s poetry is her life. The truth of her whole existence is recorded beautifully on the pages of Journey in Shades. While her experience is unique, the themes she writes about are universal; a child’s loss of innocence, messy young love, losing loved ones, and accepting one’s own mistakes. Everyone can relate to her verses, and everyone can fall in love with her words.
Reviewed by Lucy Skoulding
Why not buy a copy of Leaving Traces, the second collection of poetry by Mary Pargeter?
Click the link if you’d like to know more about Mary Pargeter.
