SOLIE IS CANADIAN, but the poems in the book are mainly set in Scotland; the Caiplie Caves are on Scotland's east coast and are associated with St. Ethernan, a 7th century CE missionary, probably a bishop, possibly a martyr, possibly a hermit--a figure of indistinct outline, then, thus well-suited for poetic inhabitation.
Both Part I and Part II contain a group of poems in Ethernan's voice, which I was interested to see have the right-hand justification used in several poems in the new book by Jorie Graham, which I wrote about yesterday. Solie does not conure up quite the against-the-grain feeling that Graham does with this device, but her Ethernan is certainly an against-the-grain character, disillusioned with humanity and with the church. (Ethernan on the proliferation of relics: "our dear saints possessed, in addition to divine attributes / more than the usual number of working parts".)
I read Parts I and II not sure what interested Solie in this setting or in Ethernan, but there is a surprising swerve in Part III--a group of poems in the form of Ethernan's (right justification, double-spaced), but in the voice of (it seems) Solie herself.
the solitude
there are no two ways about it
you can live here but don't expect it to entertain you
like a can on a fence it will set you up
test on you its experimental drugs
dress you in its homemade clothes
hunger breaking you in two to make you last
Solie's desire for relief, refuge, a place apart, would be eloquent on its own--but in the context of her seeing the relics of and then re-imagining the hermits and martyrs of the early church, that desire rings a little differently and a little more poignantly. It's not, we realize, a modern complaint, but an ancient one, and no remedy, then or now, be it spiritual or pharmaceutical, is going to do all that we hope it will. "I want to see the end of / it does not end."
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