I Change, I Change - Poems
by
Barbara Deming
The poems here follow a chronology that mirrors
Barbara Deming's relationships; each chapter is named for a woman
the author loved. The early poems are full of freedom and passion
and, as Grace Paley notes in the preface, bear a resemblance to
the work of e.e.cummings. The later works become more modulated,
reserved, and polished, an indication of the author's maturation
and her response to pain and trouble with discipline and vision.
The change reflects a turn from inward to outward concerns, as
Deming grew more active in various civil rights movements.
Deming, like Marie Claire Blais, Kate Millet,
and others who grew up and eventually came out in the 1940s,
1950s, and 1960s, continued to strive for a supportive community
in a desire to combine the strength of the group with the strength
of the individual in a way that would allow freedom and
responsibility to coexist. She sought to reconcile the need to
make art and to make a living, and to make a "right
living." She became an activist and worked to make the world
recognize the needs of women, the underprivileged, minorities, and
eventually the gay and lesbian community. Most of the poems in
this volume deal with love, with self-criticism, with passion and
with nature, and with personal rather than political issues. Only
some of the later poems comment on the political struggle,
ridiculing the church for acting as if God the Father could suckle
babies, for example, as if the traditionally patriarchal structure
would nourish those outside the political pale.
As a poet and as the granddaughter of an
Armenian immigrant who buried himself in assimilation to try to
save his children and himself the pain of racism, I identify with
and respect Deming. Her struggle for acceptance, for love, for the
chance to do her work, and for spiritual strength in a world that
would sometimes imply that she was not worthy of any of these
things, and her persistence in spite of the difficulties, is
exemplary. The introduction, preface, and epilogue add a great
deal to the book as literary biography, although most of the
poetry would stand alone. Deming wrote, after her last operation
for cancer:
AND NOW MY SPIRIT GUIDES HAIL ME AND SMILE I'VE
SUNG MYSELF BEYOND THIS LIFE'S PALE.
I would recommend this volume of poems for
libraries with poetry collections, collections that lack women or
lesbian authors, and as counterpoint to Prison Notes or some of
her other political or autobiographical titles. -- Review by N.
Parker-Gibson, Cornette
Library, West Texas A & M University
