Rue Sainte Famille

Sheila Martindale is poetry editor of Canadian Author and Bookman and
author of No Greater Love, her sixth collection of poetry.

The poems in this collection explore human relationships, mythology, and
tribal lore, and despite the particular location in the title, are drawn
from a wide geographical area. There are some strong, earthy poems
featuring the poet’s mother, grandmother, the archetype witch, and
matriarchy in general. One section deals with masks, voodoo dolls, and
weird carvings; these are disturbing poems reaching down through many
layers of consciousness. The title section in the book presents
portraits of residents in the neighborhood, including a weary secretary,
an unlucky cat, and a creepy guy who invites the poet onto the roof of
his building. In contrast to these thumbnail sketches are longer poems
dealing with such disparate topics as a visit to a coalmine, a
depressing drug scene, ice fishing, and wild horses.

There are many pithy lines and startling images in Hussey’s poetry;
somehow she centralizes the fragments of her many subjects, weaving them
into a coherent pattern which starts and finishes in her own psyche. A
particularly memorable piece is “If the Self Is a House,” in which
she looks at the component of her life and remembers herself “waiting
/ for her father to come and repair the shutters, / paint the furniture,
fix all that is broken.”