шш in review DISCOURSE OF THE OTHER - University of British ...

BOOKS IN REVIEWcarved nude that a boy had made] butthe soul of the artist he knew he shouldhave been." This statement points notonly to the destroyed art object but alsoto the connection between art andlove/eros which it made explicit whenPercy states that "art and love both"must attempt the impossible. This relationshipis neatly conveyed in the titlewhich suggests both an ideal (model)lover, and one who loves toy models (althoughin this book they are elevated toan art form) ; both are meanings whichmodulate and shape the telling of thesotry. But again neither the toy modelnor the ideal lover are ever realized.In each text characters are, in one wayor another, arrested in the relentlessdance, a dance which the story (imagination)is in no position to challenge ordisplace. In general, Van Herk's andBurns's characters react negatively tohearing the story while Percy's charactersunsuccessfully tell the story (or createthe work of art). If the prisoning rhythmis to be broken it can probably only be inthe activity of telling, in listening to whatis told, and in the acceptance of responsibilitythat an informed telling demands.Nevertheless, Arachne's response is stilltempting: laughter and irreverence.FOUR POETSBARBARA LECKIEGERALD HILL, Heartwood. Thistledown, $7.95.MARK FRUTKiN, The Alchemy of Clouds. Fiddlehead:Goose Lane, $6.95.PAT JASPER, Recycling. Fiddlehead: GooseLane, $7.95.MAGGIE HELwiG, Tongues of Men and Angels.Oberon, $9.95.IN Heartwood, GERALD HILL'S first collectionof poems, the influence of the landthe poet grew up in is subtle but pervasive.The poems communicate a senseof spaciousness and restlessness. Theytend to focus on things moving andfree — jets, clouds, balloons, and birdseagles, hawks, pelicans, budgies — andthey express their predominant moodthrough phrases like "I floated," "Isoared," "my arms float." In the openingpoem, "A Boy's Time, How He MarksIt," a boy digging in the dirt fantasizesabout flying with the Golden Hawks, anair force aerobatic team. If his face ispressed against the earth, it is only to"sight / along a runway" he's constructed;what he wants is "to be / abovethe earth." In his imagination, he "flies /like a white hand reaching / for theblue." If there's a lot of digging in theground going on in these poems, it's ofa pretty superficial nature — childrenplaying, people gardening; as with theboy, the longing is to be "above theearth" and, quite clearly, free of it. In"Anecdote of Sadness and Flight," a humorousand oddly poignant lyric, Dave'sbudgie alludes to its having "broke /through the silver door / high over Nelson."Dave himself was apparently makingplans to leave Nelson but, as the birdobserves, "I broke free / and beat you toit." In "Anecdote of the Eagle," thespeaker is plucked gently from his canoeby an eagle and carried high above theland to see as "an eagle sees." As in somany of his other poems, Hill lets hisimagination soar freely. What he offers isflight in the process as well as theproduct.The restless unifying impulse in Heartwoodis expressed in various intricatelyconnected ways. Like the imagination,memory offers ascent and freedom fromthe land. In "The Grid Roads," peoplereminiscing become hawks: "For a momentour bodies lighten / and the birchfalls away." There are pleasant memoriesof distant places, love in Cape Cod inone poem, lovers in another, paintingeach other's bodies under "the rusting /280