Review: Mid Lands by Kate Bingham
Poetry London, Autumn issue 58 Oct. 2007 (extract taken from 'The First XI' pamphlet rewiews)
Two voices speak the poems in Mid Lands, by Jacqueline Gabbitas: one a grown up, self conscious voice of enquiry (contemporary poetryÕs RP) and one a voice from childhood, written in dialect. Mid Lands is worth reading for this second voice alone. 'Shitspiders', a compellingly detailed account of underground creepy-crawlies, is disgusting and delightful at the same time, made poignant by its coal-miner narratorÕs refrain 'And thi' wa' gold!':
Thi were like a seam
we could chip bits offa - for a wedding ring or a tooth.
But thi waÕ movinÕ! In anÕ out of tÕshite weÕd left months ago.
Her dialect poems are grounded in a feeling of 'found' authenticity, but Gabbitas is interested in more than mere ventriloquism. As the pamphletÕs first, manifesto, poem 'Field' makes clear, she's 'not a tourist' but fully resident in both voices, both selves, and like other so-to-speak bilingual poets (Kathleen Jamie springs to mind) aware of the complicated gifts this dual nationality can bring.
Elsewhere, in fine and lovely poems with conventional spellings, Gabbitas turns a well schooled hand to everyday objects - butcherÕs block, locket, doll, pebble - almost scientifically examining their image-bearing qualities as poets do. In 'Wildflowers', 'Gutter', 'Osterglocken', and 'Enten' a similar approach holds up individual words to the light of poetic investigation, suggesting that, whichever voice she uses, GabbitasÕ true subject is language itself.
© Poetry London 2007
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