Occasionally, on a Sunday, we'll publish a poetry review.
Our second review is "Following Teisa" by Judi Sutherland.
Publisher: The
Book Mill Press
ISBN: 9781916475083
Judi
Sutherland’s poem sequence Following Teisa literally follows
in the Eighteenth-Century footsteps of the little-known poet Anne
Wilson, whose long-form poem Teisa chartered the River Tees
and surrounding townlands. From its source in Teeshead, near Cross
Fell (the highest mountain in the Pennines) all the way downstream to
its estuary near Redcar, Sutherland captures the scenery and history
of ninety miles of river.
Using
inventive adjectives and unearthing uncommon nouns for seemingly
common sights, the pastoral elegance of each location is evoked. We
have waterways “garlands with bridges”; one bridge with
“xylophone planks”; a “ramble of houses… as cute as barley
sugar”; a section of the river reimagined as “the water-feature
of a Japanese god”. One of the delights of the book is repeatedly
coming across these glorious descriptions that make the reader long
to go exploring themselves.
But
what of the person walking the river way? Sutherland takes the form
of a passive observer throughout the work, preferring to act as an
omnipresent cataloguer of sights. In fact, there is only one use of
‘I; and one use of ‘my’ in the entire work, and this is when
Sutherland draw direct comparison with Anne Wilson’s take and her
own. It’s a curious experience for a reader, to have this
disembodied commentator reporting back to us, yet saying nothing of
how the landscapes might stir themselves. Rather, we are left with
pure reportage, albeit a reportage that has a wide grasp of language
and terminologies, and which is enthusiastic about its subject.
There
is perhaps an over-reliance in the use of lists: there appears to be
so many sights and worthy points of note – some disparate, some
connected – that often these are piled in on top of each other, and
so the sense of natural space and open geography can be compromised
at time. However, this works well as we near toward the river’s
end, as we experience a shift in mood, of encroaching industry and
city.
For
anyone familiar with the areas covered, Following Teisa is
sure to stir the senses, and perhaps even make one a little homesick.
For the outsider, who may have only heard of such grandeur, of
glimpsed the majesty of the Tees on the popular Mortimer and
Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Sutherland presents to us a rich
tapestry of potamology, folklore and agrarian aesthetics.