Looking for Mother

Thomas M.F. Gerry is a professor of English at Laurentian University.

In a sense these poems are elegiac, the twist in the search being that
MacDonald’s mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Guided by the
poet, the reader is led to witness events and circumstances many of us
would rather not observe, and certainly would rather not experience,
either as subject or object. The poet gives voice, through a dialogue
with his memories and those he imagines to be his mother’s memories,
to the “undefinable confusion” in which his aged mother lives.

As a whole, the poetry is finely crafted. Especially striking are the
transitions, swiftly accomplished from line to line, which convey the
old woman’s loss of control, the randomness of her memories, and the
lack of them. Also effective are the sudden alterations in perspective,
such as when the poet steps back from his seeking or is shocked out of
the pursuit by something his mother says or does. At one point he holds
the elevator for her; as she slowly approaches, she asks if it’s going
up or down. “Down,” he tells her, not mentioning that they are on
the top floor already; she responds, “I’m waiting to go up.”
Looking for Mother is profound and moving.