Without Benefit of Words

Sheila Martindale is poetry editor of Canadian Author and Bookman and
author of No Greater Love.

This is an extremely powerful first collection of poems. Wall is a
participant in the dialogue of life, and her poetry is filled with
cogent “one-liners.” The title poem is from the section Dumb
Animals—here the poet describes the various ways in which animals
(particularly cats) communicate. Her obvious rapport with the nonhuman
elements of nature is in interesting juxtaposition to her remarks about
failed human relationships. Her comments on the darker side of the human
species are chilling: “If you can’t own it / Screw it / or kill
it.” There is an atmosphere of menace in many of Wall’s poems, a
feeling of the fragility of life and the everpresence of death. “These
photographs are smiling death masks / of wanderers who cannot turn back
/ through age, death / loss of love, or growth / to time’s smiling
betrayal / of the negative” is typical of the wry twists present in
much of her work. It is a measure of the poet’s skill that poems on
depressing topics avoid being maudlin or self-indulgent. The final poems
under the heading “The Metaphysics of Divorce” are cogent and
sensitive. Wall makes us feel grief and numb acceptance, but does not
leave us without a sense that joy is also possible. The poems that are
least successful for the average reader concern Sumerian mythology.
Something is lost when one must continually flip to the notes at the
back of the book. However, these pieces have a lot to say about how
people manipulate each other, so they do, after all, fit well with the
rest of the collection. This is a mature and confident poetic voice,
which we are certain to hear again often.