密歇根新闻广播 诗人对婚姻和母性的理解

In her new collection of poems, Goodbye Toothless House, Michigan writer Kelly Fordon takes aim at the idealized facade¹ of marriage and motherhood. Ann Arbor-based poet and writer Keith Taylor has this review for us.

Listen above to hear Keith Taylor's review of "Goodbye Toothless House."

The third poem in Kelly Fordon's new collection Goodbye Toothless House begins:

"Five years after college,

I was strapped² into a swing

alongside a squalling baby.

Women in houses all around

lined up like dummies³ on shelves."

Ouch! No sweet memories of wife-ing and mothering there. Since it's early in the book, a reader who wants more sweetness and sentimentality might be thinking, Oh, this is interesting; the poet is going to figure things out and learn to love her new family life." But Kelly Fordon is not that easy on herself, nor on her readers.

Near the middle of the book, in a poem ominously⁴ entitled The Teenager, after describing the deep difficulties that sometimes arise when raising children through those hard years, she writes, It went on and on/and when it was over,/we were old. No platitudes⁵ about how it was all worthwhile in the end. Just simply, it was over, we were old.

In case this sounds too bleak⁶ for you, I can assure that you that even though it is very bleak, there are moments that allow for different responses. When Fordon ends a poem about watching children leave kindergarten, she writes:

We give children trophies/for breathing in and out./Clap and clap and clap and clap./The years pass like cafeteria trays.

Forgive me, but I find that frank admission of tedium⁷ in that situation kind of funny. Not funny in the sweet kids are so cute way; but funny in the life is weird⁸, why do we do this way.

The last poem, The Escape Artist is a series of goodbyes to that domesticity, which has not given meaning to this woman's life:

"Goodbye to

this fallow life,

the heathery sky,

the metal grabbers,

and all who

thought I was

spellbound."

This speaker is certainly not, or is no longer, spellbound. Wherever she has arrived, it is not reconciliation⁹. It is certainly not acceptance or submission¹⁰. It is farewell, she has had enough, and it is liberating¹¹.

Support for arts and culture coverage¹² comes in part from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

1 facade   

n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表

参考例句：

• The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door.入口正面有一大型全高度玻璃门。
• If you look carefully,you can see through Bob's facade.如果你仔细观察，你就能看穿鲍勃的外表。

2 strapped   

adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• Make sure that the child is strapped tightly into the buggy. 一定要把孩子牢牢地拴在婴儿车上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soldiers' great coats were strapped on their packs. 战士们的厚大衣扎捆在背包上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 dummies   

n.仿制品( dummy的名词复数 )；橡皮奶头；笨蛋；假传球

参考例句：

• If he dummies up, just try a little persuasion. 如果他不说话，稍微劝劝他就是了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All the articles in the window are dummies. 橱窗里的全部物品都是仿制品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 ominously   

adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地

参考例句：

• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mammy shook her head ominously. 嬷嬷不祥地摇着头。 来自飘（部分）

5 platitudes   

n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子

参考例句：

• He was mouthing the usual platitudes about the need for more compassion. 他言不由衷地说了些需要更加同情之类的陈腔滥调。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He delivered a long prose full of platitudes. 他发表了一篇充满陈词滥调的文章。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

7 tedium   

n.单调；烦闷

参考例句：

• We played games to relieve the tedium of the journey.我们玩游戏，来解除旅行的沉闷。
• In myself I could observe the following sources of tedium. 从我自己身上，我所观察到的烦闷的根源有下列一些。

8 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

9 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

10 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

11 liberating   

解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
• They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中，他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

12 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。