Written by Katherin Edwards, Design by Melissa Haney
Published by Jackpine Press
$30.00 ISBN 978-1-927035-22-1
Jackpine Press recently released The Sky Was 1950 Blue, a collaborative chapbook written by Katherin Edwards and designed by Melissa Haney and I received No. 51 of a limited edition of 75 copies for review.
Limited edition, handmade books are Jackpine鈥檚 forte, and each time I receive one I鈥檓 excited to see how the author and designer, often one and the same, have reconciled content and construct. Concepts are such interesting animals.
Edwards鈥� colourful title comes from an Ian Tyson lyric, and the 1950s are represented here not only in the saddle-stitched book鈥檚 hue and interior drawings, but also in the fact that each poem includes a year (between 1950 and 1959) in its title.
I opened the chapbook to discover that it also possesses a subtitle, 鈥淧oems from the Clothesline,鈥� and indeed a continuous drawn clothesline acts like a border, stretching across the top of each page and supporting simple drawings of the clothing and linens referenced in each of the 13 poems.
The books were printed via a 300-year-old process called cyanotype, which involves both 鈥渟unning鈥� a negative image and later hanging it to dry (like laundry) in the dark. It鈥檚 also notable that the covers sport a scalloped 鈥渓ace鈥� flap. It is fitting, as the poems reveal that the narrator exhibits a romantic image of her future.
The opening piece, 鈥�1950, January Cotton,鈥� introduces us to a girl as she removes clothes from her mother鈥檚 clothesline. This girl 鈥渇ails to recognize in the bed sheets\a stiff-winged trapped angel, frozen\from the brittle night鈥� and dreams of 鈥渟triding\from this trapline of life,鈥� as 鈥淟ife鈥檚 picnic waits just\around the corner.鈥� Just two poems 鈥揳nd two years 鈥� later, symbolic birds (romance, freedom, liveliness) appear on marriage cards and linens. They 鈥渟oared into the threads\and with embroidery promises\and French-knotted eyes鈥� these birds observed the newlyweds.
The chronological progression of these poems is interesting. Turn the page, add another year, and the tone takes a twist: 鈥淗ow to Hang Your Gabardine Husbands, 1953.鈥� This poem, with its instructions for 鈥済ood husband keeping,鈥� actually reads like a found poem. 鈥淪tart with a clean taut line.\All pegs should be new and dry,鈥� and then comes the darkly comic flip to 鈥淏e aware of what your neighbours may think.鈥�
聽Poetry is subjective, but as I read it, this collection represents a gradual disillusionment with marriage and 1950s gender roles (鈥淢en stir martinis\ladies knit blankets鈥�), and a quiet longing for the carefree days of childhood, with its 鈥渟heets snapping on clotheslines\sweet picnics and lemonade.鈥� The finest poem is the subtle and lyrical 鈥淐hiffon Belief, 1957 陆 ,鈥� which begins 鈥淎ll this falling.\Each year we greeted the autumn,\in love with leaves.鈥� 鈥淪implicity Ball Gown Pattern, 1955鈥� presents the promise of waltzes, the reality of 鈥渁 greying housedress鈥� and 鈥淏are feet\ [shuffling] across the faded lino floor.鈥�
What we sign up for is often not the reality of our experience. This smartly- conceived little book hangs out the dirty laundry, including 鈥渢he costumes we wear鈥� as our lives blow and fade in the wind.
This book is available at your local bookstore or from the saskatchewan publishers group www.skbooks.com.
