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Review of Poet Anne Casey's "the light we cannot see" 26 August 2022
the light we cannot see
by Anne Casey
Published by Salmon Poetry
ISBN 978-1-912561-97-1
Reviewed by Antonette M Diorio
Anne Casey is an award-winning poet whose careers span journalism, magazine editing, media communications and legal authorship and whose qualifications in law and journalism were obtained in Dublin. She now lives in Sydney but was born in west Clare, Ireland, and hence the Irish publisher. She is the recipient of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship for her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Her poetry book the light we cannot see is the third poetry collection by this esteemed writer. Her two previous collections are: where the lost things go (Salmon Poetry, 2017) and out of emptied cups (Salmon Poetry, 2019). Many of the poems in the light we cannot see have either won awards or recognition, nationally or internationally.
Poetry has a profound intimacy for many reasons including that poems draw upon the poet’s personal, often private experiences and the emotions that have driven the poet to pen a particular poem. That does not necessarily mean that all the information in a poem is a true or accurate description of what the poet has actually lived through because at some stage a poem takes on a life of its own. But, it does mean that readers are invited by the poet’s choice of language and poetic form and techniques into her point of view of life and invited also to actively participate in her world. What readers think about and feel as they absorb a poem, even if it is their heart that understands the poem and not their intellect, exponentially transforms meaning into a collaboration between poet and reader. The ability of a poem to transport its readers into the actual physical intensity that the poet feels, leads a poem’s readers to their own interior realms. It opens them up to a different way of seeing the world or a way to interpret what they themselves have been feeling but unable to articulate, and that is the brilliance of Anne Casey’s poetry – it transports its readers.
The poems of the light we cannot see were written at a time of devastating impacts threatening the globe: COVID-19 and how it exiled people from each other because of fear and restrictions, and, climate crises, to name just two of the recurring themes in her book.
About COVID-19: in her poem “Prayer-fish” she says that there is nothing natural in burying your father online. In “Exiled” she sees humanity taken down not by those great dreaded nuclear warheads but by a microscopic Armageddon. In “A terrible beauty” she writes - white copy of a COVID-19 molecule/and I am abandoned once more/to my isolation. In “Antipodean interlude” – each one so like/a tiny spiky/Death star – a perfect/wooden replica/of a COVID-19 cell.
About climate crises Casey specifies its causes as increased use of fossil fuels, power manufacturing and industry, and deforestation. She writes in “The BBC reports” manmade materials now outweigh all life on Earth … / We have lost our way. In “Signals by sea” she draws our attention to the red gums slated for destruction to make way for a motorway. In “At sea” My heart sinks –/faster than the five hundred billion plastic bags we use each year.
A last word about the title of this masterful collection: to me the light we cannot see gives hope that there is a way forward for humanity as we grapple with a path away from the problems we have caused. This is particularly evident in “Hold fast to dreams” where Casey challenges us to shut our eyes and see because only then we will discover embryos of hope if we dare to dream; and, again in “Either way, the fact remains” We are capable of taking the measures necessary for our own survival.
the light we cannot see is a brave, honest look at the world in which humanity now lives. I thoroughly recommend it to serious readers of poetry.
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Review of Poet Anne Casey's "the light we cannot see" 26 August 2022
the light we cannot see
by Anne Casey
Published by Salmon Poetry
ISBN 978-1-912561-97-1
Reviewed by Antonette M Diorio
Anne Casey is an award-winning poet whose careers span journalism, magazine editing, media communications and legal authorship and whose qualifications in law and journalism were obtained in Dublin. She now lives in Sydney but was born in west Clare, Ireland, and hence the Irish publisher. She is the recipient of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship for her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Her poetry book the light we cannot see is the third poetry collection by this esteemed writer. Her two previous collections are: where the lost things go (Salmon Poetry, 2017) and out of emptied cups (Salmon Poetry, 2019). Many of the poems in the light we cannot see have either won awards or recognition, nationally or internationally.
Poetry has a profound intimacy for many reasons including that poems draw upon the poet’s personal, often private experiences and the emotions that have driven the poet to pen a particular poem. That does not necessarily mean that all the information in a poem is a true or accurate description of what the poet has actually lived through because at some stage a poem takes on a life of its own. But, it does mean that readers are invited by the poet’s choice of language and poetic form and techniques into her point of view of life and invited also to actively participate in her world. What readers think about and feel as they absorb a poem, even if it is their heart that understands the poem and not their intellect, exponentially transforms meaning into a collaboration between poet and reader. The ability of a poem to transport its readers into the actual physical intensity that the poet feels, leads a poem’s readers to their own interior realms. It opens them up to a different way of seeing the world or a way to interpret what they themselves have been feeling but unable to articulate, and that is the brilliance of Anne Casey’s poetry – it transports its readers.
The poems of the light we cannot see were written at a time of devastating impacts threatening the globe: COVID-19 and how it exiled people from each other because of fear and restrictions, and, climate crises, to name just two of the recurring themes in her book.
About COVID-19: in her poem “Prayer-fish” she says that there is nothing natural in burying your father online. In “Exiled” she sees humanity taken down not by those great dreaded nuclear warheads but by a microscopic Armageddon. In “A terrible beauty” she writes - white copy of a COVID-19 molecule/and I am abandoned once more/to my isolation. In “Antipodean interlude” – each one so like/a tiny spiky/Death star – a perfect/wooden replica/of a COVID-19 cell.
About climate crises Casey specifies its causes as increased use of fossil fuels, power manufacturing and industry, and deforestation. She writes in “The BBC reports” manmade materials now outweigh all life on Earth … / We have lost our way. In “Signals by sea” she draws our attention to the red gums slated for destruction to make way for a motorway. In “At sea” My heart sinks –/faster than the five hundred billion plastic bags we use each year.
A last word about the title of this masterful collection: to me the light we cannot see gives hope that there is a way forward for humanity as we grapple with a path away from the problems we have caused. This is particularly evident in “Hold fast to dreams” where Casey challenges us to shut our eyes and see because only then we will discover embryos of hope if we dare to dream; and, again in “Either way, the fact remains” We are capable of taking the measures necessary for our own survival.
the light we cannot see is a brave, honest look at the world in which humanity now lives. I thoroughly recommend it to serious readers of poetry.
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