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'Rare Space' by Leslie Anne Mcilroy

Poet's original voice hits the mark

Sunday, October 14, 2001

By By Michael Simms, is a poet and publisher based in Pittsburgh

	Rare Space By Leslie Anne Mcilroy Word Press $15.00

Many of the poems take place in bars. One of my favorites is “Ten Years in the Cage,” which ends:

The revolving door

of waitresses -- all writers

or dead heads, lesbians

or psych majors --

struggling to pay rent, to get laid;

too bored to figure tax on a 2-dollar hoagie,

sharp as tin at totaling tips:

they never get stiffed twice.

Great stuff, but an entire book of this feminist persona would be tiresome. Thankfully, the poet sometimes softens her stance, as in “The Shrinking of Pittsburgh,” a lovely lyric, simple, direct and musical:

I’m waiting for the day

I don’t love you anymore

and I suspect it will come quietly...

At times Mcilroy shows a surprising gift for traditional forms, as in this quatrain from “Goodbye Valentine” as perfect in its rhythm and rhyme as any stanza by Roethke or Swinburne:

Today Michelangelo says a prayer,

alone on the scaffolding

high in the air

In many of her poems, Mcilroy doesn’t refrain from expressing her political opinions. In general, I’m not fond of overtly political poetry because it tends to be theme-driven rather than language-driven. There are exceptions, of course.

Tim Seibles, whom Mcilroy has published in the local literary magazine, HEArt, which she co-edits, is an example of a poet who successfully merges personal lyric with political argument. Like Seibles, Mcilroy has melded the personal and the political in ways that are both moving and socially aware. She usually writes about gays, women and African Americans in ways that rise above politics.

In a few poems, however, her political correctness dominates the poetry, keeping Mcilroy from fully developing a dramatic situation.

For example, “The Wrap,” a narrative about her handing a bag of bagels to a homeless vet she sees every morning on the street, has a self-congratulatory tone. I would like the poem better if she had explored this emotionally complex relationship between a middle-class professional woman and a man who lacks her privileges.

Mcilroy’s first full-length collection demonstrates a strong original voice, a sense of the music of language, and a resilient social conscience that often hits its mark. This book is an impressive debut for a talented young writer.