Tremen Town

Mary Jane Starr was with the National Library of Canada in Ottawa.

Meryl Duprey’s first collection contains forty poems and is published in chapbook format; indeed, the poems look mimeographed rather than printed. Unfortunately, not all the typographical errors are covered in the errata slip, which itself adds to the amateurish quality of the presentation.

There is no predominant theme to this work, although many of the poems focus on a diminished or circumscribed existence, both geographically and emotionally. The poems deal with those who are getting by, who have survived death, and who have been left behind, or aside. Within these compromised lives, the perspective is purely pessimistic. One rare and guarded instance of optimism occurs in “The Dam”: “…and you were looking happier and better smells filled the room.” The “cold and brown” atmosphere of the “Gulag” pervades the work. Irony is sparingly used, and the imagery is, by turns, bleak and savage. The poet’s lexicon conveys a sense of listlessness, of sameness, of near-despair that leads ultimately to lack of interest for the reader.

From a technical viewpoint, the line breaks are disruptive and a rhyming scheme attempted in the title poem, “Tremen Town,” is not sustained. The poetry is bound not so much by the geographical setting of interior British Columbia as by a lack of experience and ability. One conclusion to be drawn is provided by Duprey in “The Love Letter” — that is, “you’re writing down these things for yourself.”