Stranger in You: Selected Poems and New

Jill Didur teaches English at York University.

This collection of new and selected poems serves as a good introduction
to Mary di Michele’s work. The poems, arranged chronologically, are
drawn from six of her previously published books, beginning with Tree of
August (1978) and ending with four new compositions. Those presented are
concerned with the perpetual struggle to understand constructions of the
self in everyday life and the relation this has to language.

In “Cara,” for example, the speaker, objectifying herself in a
childhood photograph on display at her parent’s home, muses over the
nature of their early expectations for her future, and reflects on the
disjunction between the experiences of her current life and the picture
of the little girl. In “Mimosa,” di Michele illustrates the complex
web of cultural connections and contradictions that shape the identities
of members of an Italian-Canadian family. The retired patriarch, left
with nothing to do but rock in the “Brighton rocker, in the backyard /
of the house he’s earned” wishes his grown daughters were toddlers
again “dozing in his arms.” The eldest daughter, Lucia, however, is
happy to be grown and explains that “[s]o much of my life has been
wasted feeling guilty / about disappointing my father and mother.”
Lucia’s sister Marta criticizes her rebelliousness even while she
appears to envy it and resents having to wear her hand-me-downs.
Concerned about expressing her own self-worth, Marta comments: “I
didn’t give a fig about fashion, / but second hand clothes from my
sister/ identified me as hers.”

Overall, the collection characterizes di Michele’s preoccupation with
gender issues and her responses to other poets’ and artists’ work.
“Gravity” and “Les Plaisirs de la Porte,” for instance,
represent cynical responses to representations of femininity in poems by
Raymond Carver and Francis Ponge. “The Primer,” on the other hand,
explores the relation between a woman’s difficulty with
self-expression and her experiences of sexual molestation and
patriarchal power. These are wonderfully crafted poems.