Alicia Suskin Ostriker, The
Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh
Press, 2014. 69 pages, paper.
$15.95U.S. ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-6291-5.
At a recent reading, Alicia Ostriker confessed her
surprise—being a serious woman, she said, when the three extraordinary
characters who eventually gave the title to her new book, The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog, popped up and began talking
to her. Lucky poet, because all three are a sheer delight to meet.
Each of the forty-two poems in this slim volume contains three
stanzas, in which these characters take the stage in turn, with an equal number
of lines allotted to each. They address the subject at hand, whether it be
life, liberty, nature, religion, love, evil, anger, or war. Ostriker said that
she was not certain which of the three characters represents her—perhaps the
tulip. All of them, it seems, are aspects of her poetic psyche, delving into
earthly life from three perspectives: human, plant, and animal.
What is one to get out of these poems besides pure enjoyment?
Well, culled wisdom for one thing, as well as a sense of the multiplicity of
possible views of existence. This gem of a collection offers humor, wit,
stunning lyricism, always surprise. The language is outstanding not only for
its conciseness which appears utterly natural, but for its deceptive
simplicity, its everyday idiom—wherein its power resides.
In the poems, the characters compete to win dominance for
their views, often slyly undermining one another. Humor, wit, earthy expressions
become the vehicles of common sense, deflating excessive poetic rhetoric and
overblown emotions. “The Moment on Stage
I.” for instance, moves from self-dramatization to playfulness in the moment:
I am
happy to
be
here
said the
fragile old woman
when my
beauty
fades I
shall die
said the
dark red tulip
Come on
and
throw me
that
Frisbee
said the
dog (30).
Ostriker celebrates with fun the simple supremacy of life. In
“Church,” here is how the dog says it: “I ain’t nothing but a hound dog/cryin’
all the time/nothin’/but a hound dog cryin’/said the dog/but the preacher
says/no matter/how blue I may get/I am a damn sight better/than a dead lion”
(33-34).
Although
Ostriker gives equal time to all three characters, it is no accident that the
dog gets the last stanza every time. Bawdy though he is, or maybe because he
is, the dog wins the poet’s deepest sympathy. She knows how he feels, and admires
his devotion to humans even when some (or many) are undeserving. This dog is authentic,
true to himself, and can express outrage with a sharp bite, as in the last
stanza of “Anger II: The Rape:” “Definition of a bleeding heart—/you could not
bear to look/so you crossed the street and did nothing to stop/ the man on the
corner with the stick/beating me said the dog belligerently” (51).
“In War Time” is chilling.
It uses ordinary words and phrases, turning them to exceptional effect, creating
layers of metaphor in the most matter-of-fact tone. The poet’s passion comes through as she
decries all wars and the most horrifying of events, the Holocaust.
Ah here
you are at last
sorry
about the guards
I hope
they didn’t give you much trouble
I was
afraid you’d never make it
across
the river before curfew
let me
take your coats
said the
old woman
Thank you
how could
we possibly pass up
such a
sweet invitation
but let
me tell you
said the
tulip
when we
reached the bridge we saw
the river
was full of corpses
A dog too
can be afraid
despite
an appearance of ferocity
navigating
unfamiliar streets
dodging
unpredictable explosions
still one
persists in one’s errand
here we
are said the dog
thank you
I will keep my coat (61).
This collection presents an exceptional poet’s argument with
herself. It is brilliant, daring, earthy, proclaiming that there is no
substitute for life and the living of it.
Ostriker, author of 15 poetry collections, including The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems,
1979-2011, and The Book of Seventy,
has received numerous awards, among them the Paterson Award for Sustained
Literary Achievement and the National Jewish Book Award. A finalist twice for
the National Book Award, she is professor emerita of English at Rutgers
University and teaches in the low-residency MFA program of Drew University.
-Nina Tassi has published three books: Urgency Addiction (nonfiction), The
Jeremiah Tree, and Antarctic Visions (poetry),
and has recently completed a new collection,
Spirit Ascending.
Copyright 2015 by Nina Tassi - All Rights Reserved
