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Reviewers' Opinions
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Extracts from reviews are also included on individual authors' pages.
 
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Carla Scarano reviews "Messages written on envelope backs" by Ayelet McKenzie

2/3/2019

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Ayelet McKenzie has lived in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, for 32 years. She has published two pamphlet collections, and two previous full collections, The Patient is Disappointing and Courting the Asylum. 


Picture
Her latest collection, Messages Written on Envelope Backs, explores an alternative to conventional “normality” with original imagery. The collection opens with a fascinating series of pen portraits of the overlooked people the poet has met. They all have a dreamy, unexpected side:

     She smelt of sweat, a faint urine and lilies,
     wore old clothes
     walked everywhere;
     with wild winged eyebrows and knotty hair.
                                                           (‘Mabel’)​

Battered and trusted
     like an old teddy bear,
     she shambled through life
     in her shabby jeans and T-shirt.
     Crazy as heck,
     with her ring-a-ding-ding ponytail
     and face full of curiosity and good humour.
                                                         (‘Liz’)

There are direct references to mental health experiences that expose a lack of empathy in the psychiatric ward:

     I go to see my psychiatrist,
     who is petite and slight
     with wrinkled woollen tights
     and hair down to her waist,
     she looks like a little girl.
     Prescribes tablets that make me fat.
     ….
     she thinks I am mad.
                                  (‘The Psychiatrist’)
The poem ‘Psychiatric Inmates’ also implies a ‘dark’ side: sedation. The effects of medication don’t allow for the human need to have some physical contact. Food has a symbolic significance; it is a comfort, it is ‘self-medicating’ and is meant to be savoured in bed, taking your time. This ‘wasting’ of time challenges bustling modern life, and points to an alternative vision. This is expressed in McKenzie’s precise imagery and in the slow rhythm of her short, evolving lines:

     she dropped her purse
     and the coins spilled out;
     scattered – and rolled away
     as if they didn’t matter.


     And he stood there laughing,     ….
...
     The sun laughed too

      and it was beautiful.

                            (‘Misadventure’)
In Messages Written on Envelope Backs there is a ruthless ‘reality’ to acknowledge beneath a surreal or dreamy view “where dry stone walls/cut into land and section it” (‘View’). Nevertheless, the poet keeps on “hoping you will come and track me down” (‘Lost Love’).
                                                     
                                                      Carla Scarano

                                                      First published on "Write Out Loud'. March 2019

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  • DEMPSEY & WINDLE
  • Authors' pages A-B
    • Veronica Aaronson
    • Derek Adams
    • Timothy Adès
    • Gary Allen
    • Moira Andrew
    • David Ashbee
    • Wanda Barford
    • Ranald Barnicot
    • Kevin Bailey
    • William Bedford
    • Philip Bentall
    • David Bleiman
    • Marc Brightside
    • Trisha Broomfield
  • Authors' Pages C – G
    • Fiona Cartwright
    • Ian Caws
    • Ian Clarke
    • Mary Chuck
    • Stephen Claughton
    • Claudia Court
    • David Cooke
    • Alexandra Davis
    • Donall Dempsey
    • Ray Diamond
    • Tony Earnshaw
    • Scott Elder
    • Roger Elkin
    • Wendy Falla
    • Bert Flitcroft
    • Robbie Frazer
    • Dawn Gorman
  • Authors' Pages H - O
    • Charlotte Harker
    • Richard Hawtree
    • Georgia Hilton
    • Paul Jeffcutt
    • Margaret Jennings
    • Sue Johns
    • Peter W Keeble
    • Wendy Klein
    • Janet Loverseed
    • Jeremy Loynes
    • Valerie Lynch
    • Aiison Mace
    • Kyle McHale
    • Ayelet McKenzie
    • Heather Moulson
    • M.E.Muir
    • Ian Mullins
    • Patrick B Osada
  • Authors' Pages P – S
    • Linda Rose Parkes
    • Mark G Pennington
    • Nicky Phillips
    • Colin Pink
    • Jenna Plewes
    • Ray Pool
    • Harriet Proudfoot
    • Polly Roberts
    • Imogen Russell Williams
    • Julie Sampson
    • Carla Scarano D'Antonio
    • Richard Schwartz
    • Susan Jane Sims
    • Fiona Sinclair
    • Belinda Singleton & Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathryn Southworth
    • Kathleen Strafford
    • Paul Surman
    • Paul Sutherland
  • Authors' Pages T – Z
    • Cherrie Taylor
    • Laura Theis
    • Brad Walker
    • Sue Wallace-Shaddad
    • J S Watts
    • Poul Webb
    • John Wheeler
    • Richard Williams
    • Simon Williams
    • Geoffrey Winch
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    • Richard Woolmer
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