BORROWED COATS
Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, . . Hanging Loose, $21 (112pp) ISBN 978-1-882413-93-5
The voice of Tulare County past and present also belongs to California's poet laureate; McDaniel wears both hats—and coats—with dignity and straight talk. The author of 15 chapbooks and 10 full-length collections (the last four for the Brooklyn-based collective Hanging Loose), the German-Irish-Cherokee descended McDaniel was raised in a family of depression-era sharecroppers, and spent her working life in vineyards and small towns. From "My Landlady Brings Me an Easter Gift" ("fleshiest blossoms/ that ever grew/ in Kmart's garden") to "Breadstuff" ("I have never liked bagels/ even from Foxxy's in Las Vegas," McDaniel's preferences, recollections and musings form a wry, coherent worldview over the course of these 90-plus, page-or-so poems. Many of the short stanzas make wonderful near-haiku: "Twenty-one trees/ the lawyers planted/ on Volunteer Saturday" or "I just long to be/ in their scruffy company again// even if they have tidied up their acts/ become boring little saints," while understated, unexpected images appear in the cart as if by magic: "Their indulgences are piling up/ and some day/ will reach heaven—/ a special corner/ smelling of Grade A milk." The titles alone are worth the price of admission; "I Would Like to Shoot the Quack," "Forty-Five-Year-Old Man on Total Disability" and "Perfume Hound" are just a few of the acquaintances readers should willingly make.
Reviewed on: 05/14/2001
Genre: Poetry
Hardcover - 112 pages - 978-1-882413-94-2