To All Appearances A Lady - University of British Columbia

Books in Review
grating myths and archetypes. Despite the
intrusive reflexivity of many transitions between
dream and actual worlds, the mergings
of river and garden make this a more
challenging and mystical journey and return
than those undergone in the other collections.
For Sherman and Radu, whether following
currents or treading water, the
journeys, exotic and mental excursions that
nourish and heal, always remain separate
from the gardens, places of security. In
Rogal's Sweet Betsy, the merging results in
the river threatening to submerge the garden.
The journeys in The Walled Garden are
towards the reconciliation of opposites—
male and female, movement and stasis,
outer and inner, reality and dream—and
affirmation of total being.
The ease with which Bullock moves between
open verse and prose forms reflects
the integration of different realms of being
in this fantasia. The Walled Garden includes
eight black-and-white photographs of scenes
in and around the garden, but their realism
fails to intrigue in the same way as the "fantasia"
itself and actually undercuts the synthesizing
momentum of the verse and prose
pieces. In contrast, the photograph on the
back cover of this attractively bound volume
effectively overlays an image of the author's
face with shadows of the garden and, in the
foreground, a feminized Yggdrasil.
The chestnut tree, "an avatar of
Yggdrasil, the World Tree," which "holds
the sky in its branches and the underworld
in its roots," and the cloud-grey cat, transformed
into "the living priestess, the incarnation
of Shakti" emerge as the dominant
images on the odyssey through real and
dream gardens. The first poem in the first
section, "The Walled Garden," alludes to
the merging of different realms—bird, garden,
river—as the ringdove cooing "its
siren notes / atop its leafy rock" becomes "a
Lorelei / of the garden's limpid lake." The
odyssey begins as the poet seeks for the synthesizing
image through the Gothic forms
of the second section, "The Green Christ."
During "A Month in the City," the third section,
outer submerges inner, and the garden
is threatened, first, by the river and, then,
with the consequent re-assertion of self, by
brutality and warfare. The fourth section,
"Luna," details another fruitless because solipsistic
journey, this time above the garden,
while the fifth section, "Chrysanthemums,"
takes the poet below. Having travelled
inward and outward, above and below, the
synthesizing image remains to be found.
Only the final section, "Two Cats," as the
poet follows the cloud-grey cat-priestess to
the temple-tomb and unites with Shakti, is
the odyssey complete. And within the garden
the chestnut tree holds firm.
In "Shakespeare at the Well," Kenneth
Radu's bard asks, "What can I say / to an
age striking the face of the moon / and laying
waste to forest and water?" From Stan
Rogal's effluence has come the treat of total
submersion of the garden, from Sherman's
currents the security of the garden after the
journey, from Radu's well a garden where
benevolence and fidelity yet have a place,
and from Bullock's odyssey, this "homage"
to the chestnut tree:
Looking up at the tall chestnut tree
I hang my thoughts and dreams
on its branches stripped by winter—
invisible messages
waiting for intangible birds
to carry them to an address
lost in the mists of memory.
Back-patting & Bakhtin
Henry Beissel and Joy Bennett, eds.
Raging Like a Fire: A Celebration of Irving Layton.
Véhicule $18.95 paper
Douglas Barbour
Michael Ondaatje. Twayne $26.00
Reviewed by Susan MacFarlane
Raging Like a Fire is a festschrift celebrating
Irving Layton's eightieth birthday with
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