birds of sorrow

This art work is part of the work I am doing in my Fine Arts course at Curtin University. I had to choose a material to create an artwork, based on its properties, and linked to a proverb about said material. I choose hair. The proverb is
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.

Review -  brb(be right back) by Maree Dawes.

The phrase ‘nowords space’ has definitely been entered into my long term memory since reading Maree Dawes’ verse novel brb ( be right back). I will see images of it everywhere, images that I will try not to capture with the written word.

Dawes’ novel explores the whole idea of the world of fantasy, available to us in cyber space, versus the tactile, olfactory, messy world outside of the computer screen. It is this dilemma that germinates and generates action in Dawes’ writing. brb got me in on the first reading but having never used a chat room and having only limited experience of cybersex, it was the re-reading that made me appreciate the subtle seduction Dawes works. A clever writer, Dawes slowly lets her reader, even the Luddite, become comfortable with the chat room scenario.

The verse novel format is a perfect idiom as the line breaks involved are just like those on a computer social media page. For those unfamiliar with computer talk and fashion of the day, this piece of writing might be off putting. However, I would invite you to persist and re-read. It is well worth the effort.

Dawes masterfully takes us from her concrete world

my neck sinks forward/and I am full/of the scent of us/together.

to the chat room world where ‘Boadicea’ experiences the intimacy possible between strangers

                I want to hear your day in words/then I know you and the day.

Dawes’ novel is more than just a means to get you ‘hot and bothered’. It plays with the whole question of the imaginary world versus the world of sensory reality. Boadicea goes through all the euphoria and exhilaration of infatuation to the soul searching, self-justification of her actions. Finally, of course, there is the addiction to this new personal life created, a life where one can be the ‘hidden’ person that friends and spouse will not let you be, do not want you to be. The part of you squashed out by life, its obligations and roles.

Dawes switches between the worlds. The descriptions of life are in fact more powerful then the erotic writing, like her description of the music teacher playing violin

                It is hard to watch his joy/such a private thing/he closes his eyes to feel it/ I close my eyes so that I do not

or her description of the teahouse

                I am in Indiana’s teahouse/worlds are spreading out/I can see the ocean/and swimmers/ dimensions cascade/from my table/to the horizon.

But rest assured her cyber space eroticism is up to par.

Even between her two men this polarity is explored. With one she can feel that burl in the smooth flow of flesh while with her cyber man, his voice his words/somewhere we are together.  With one, it is all words on a computer and the power of those words to excite and stimulate. Whereas in her other life she gets to experience nowords space.

 Will she give up her cyber lover? The title suggests not, but the postscript will definitely leave the reader guessing.

Janette Dadd is a NSW south coast writer. She has two books of poetry published with Ginninderra Press, Eve’s Tears (2000) and Early Frosts (2013). Her work has been published in various Australian anthologies. She is an Australian Poetry Cafe Poet.