Interrogating the poetry of B Germain Reynolds
Ships that met
I looked up one day And in he walked A tall man with seeing Eyes.
The room was dark,
The air unclear, My vision had dimmed, My thinking schooled.
He searched, he found He asked, he spoke, He thought, he fixed, He hated, he changed.
I stood up one day
And out he sailed
The tall man with seeing Eyes.
-B. Germain Reynolds
Washerwoman
Her arms are fat, her back is broad
Her feet are wet and poorly shod. Diamonds glitter in her eyes, the sparkle of clean
Sheets and shirts, brighter than they have ever been
Washerwoman, washerwoman, scrubbing away.
The sun is her best friend, rain her foe, Load upon load, stubborn stains her only woe.
Her duty is dull, her triumph is meek
The same subjects will be back next week. Washerwoman, washerwoman, day after day.
Sometimes she hums, low and intense, Singing words out loud, would make no sense,
Her charges do not hear, do not see or hear And using up her air would make her task harder to bear
Washerwoman, washerwoman, with little to say.
She stops for a break, admiring the breeze, Making sails and flags of her work with ease
In her mind, dances the idea of a machine master
That would do what she does – only faster Washerwoman, washerwoman, you led the way.
-B. Germain Reynolds
[B. Germain Ryenolds, Midnight Musings, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: RoseDog Books, 2004]
[B. Germain Reynolds, Songs I Sing, Meadville, Pennsylvania: Fulton Books, 2020]
It is very instructive to keep in touch with contemporary Guyanese poets and poetry. Getting a good idea of what the output is like is not very easy to do at one glance because there is a wide range of writers both at home and abroad, many of whom are not in very wide circulation. It is, at any rate, quite interesting to see a sample of this work from different communities of poets.
In an attempt to understand the range of types and preoccupations we consider the work of B. Germain Reynolds who published two collections of poetry in the USA where she lives. They provide an insight into at least one branch of literature produced by Guyanese overseas, who
occupy a different world, but are in touch with the local environment. This is reflected in work that is universal but overall includes personal statements and testimonies. It is poetry that appeals to the emotions and feelings; existentialist verse about being, the everyday world, gender, generational conflicts, personal relationships and religion.
This writer has built a professional career in the USA but keeps close connections and there are members of her family who are very highly placed in Guyanese society. She is described as “a woman, wife, mother and leader who writes poetry because she must”, who does not seek them out, but poems come to her. She makes a point of dividing her public personality, using her two names separately, so that “Bonita Reynolds” at the office is
not confused with “Germain Reynolds” the published poet. Yet her family life and Christian devotion feature quite prominently in her poems.
Songs I Sing
As suggested in the title, Songs I Sing (2020) may well be described as a collection of songs – a kind of personal poetry drawn together in a collection published in Pennsylvania in 2020. It is her second published volume, some 16 years after her first – Midnight Musings (2004). Many poems from that collection are repeated in the later publication, a wide reaching volume of some 101 selections.
They are mostly lyrical – rhythmic with much use of rhyme and beat. They are songs in both theme and style with the demands of songwriting accounting for the poetic style. They mostly have an oral quality, more impressive when heard – appealing to the ear more than when seen on the page. They include rhythm and repetition with a weakness for rhyme. This poet loves rhyme, as a kind of fascination. They are used in keeping with some lyrical poetry, but often forced or over-used. There are major strengths in these poems found in their messages, of value to the average reader, and in their force in the expression of feelings, which is an essential quality according to Wordsworth.
In keeping with this, too, is the wide use of conversational tone and language. The poet speaks directly to the readers, familiarly. These are also qualities in keeping with the appeal to emotions and desires. The personal testaments are fortified in this regard in their expressions of faith. There are Christian statements and a prevailing form of the poems as praise songs. Reynolds follows a very long and noble line of devotional poetry.
However, there are several about humanity: relations, emotions touching on love, affection, hatred, dominance and liberation, and gender. Yet, there is also a line of cynicism where the poet finds cause to be disappointed in people. On the other hand, there are poems of fulfilment, self realisation and references to children and family.
Midnight Musings
The earlier collection, Midnight Musings (2004) is the more serious attempt at crafting poetry. Statements are made in metaphor, with dramatisations, and some irony. Additionally there is the creation of a voice, not in the sense of making conversation (because some of these are not conversational) but a deeper characterisation rooted in human experience.
When these are found, Reynolds achieves more success in the shaping of a poem. Moreover, there is less need for a dependence on rhymes, although in this regard the efforts are mixed. Among the selections there is some real success in rhythm and in rhyme, but there are still examples of those that are forced and over-used. Such incidence, however, is much less than in Songs I Sing.
Many poems delve in existentialism – not so much a questioning of being, but in an involved description of existence. This is there on a personal level, but also a more general interrogation of identity – on the finding of self or self discovery. There is the self in relation to others, and the individual as a creature of God – identity sometimes with a Christian sensibility.
Contrary to that, many poems express a sense of loss or of rescue; or a plea for help and for understanding. This is where cynicism or disappointment occasionally comes in , especially in relationships, both in love partnerships and in parent to child. Sometimes the conflict is a generation gap, sometimes it is gender. The poet places great value on individualism and self awareness of the woman.
Reynolds’ poems give messages or advice and employ a voice addressing an audience, sometimes dramatising a conversation without managing to create dramatic monologues. She ventures into the use of free verse in many selections. The collection also contains a touch of innovation in an experiment where rhymes are used in the first and last lines of each fourline stanza.