This Is Yarrow

by Tara Bergin

The poems in Dublin-born poet and translator Tara Bergin’s debut collection combine sensuous lyricism with the unsettling familiarity of folklore, fairy tale, and dream. They are inhabited by characters who seem at first widely different from one another yet share nervous energy and a troubled state of mind. Bergin gathers language from a wide range of sources and places to create a music and vision entirely her own.

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Jee Koh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't praise highly enough this first book of poems by Tara Bergin. I'm into my second reading, and it's even more compelling than the first round. Favorites, familiar from PN Review or from New Poetries V, are here--"Looking at Lucy's Painting of the Thames," "Himalayan Balsam for a Soldier," "The Undertaker's Tale of the Notebook," "This Is Yarrow"--but now set in the company of poems that deepen and broaden their resonance.

"Acting School" acknowledges the distance between art and life, but brilliantly concludes that "there is a sufficient amount of physical truth" in the former to approximate, and even vivify, the latter. That physical truth I find confirmed, again and again, in the musicality of the verse. It is not drinking water, but in drinking air, poetry comes close to life.

The contradictions and tensions in married life are conveyed with nervous, even harrowing, energy. I love the poem "At the Garage." I was reading the book in Central Park, and had to share that poem with GH, who does not read much poetry. He liked the poem immensely too. The idea, and image, of smearing with grease everything one touches. Being a hands-on kind of person, he could appreciate fully the comparison of ink in tins that etchers use.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

** 1.75 STARS **

[Stefan Grieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of interesting, sensuous poetry, sometimes gentle and passionate, and sometimes startling.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a couple of startlingly arresting poems in this collection – my favourite being Stag Boy, which almost made me gasp out loud. But unfortunately I didn’t feel that the rest of the poems in the collection measured up to quite the same standard. There are poems about paintings and acting classes and other fairly light subjects that felt a bit trivial and a bit gossipy in tone and style – of course this may have been the writer’s intention – but I found that these poems left me cold. This was not because they were about things outside of my own personal experience – this shouldn’t matter if a poem is well written – but because the poems didn’t engage me as a reader – they didn’t make me care about them. However that said there are some excellent poems in this collection and I will definitely read her next book.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

The opening poem did not take me immediately; the second one made me smirk, and warmed me to the collection; the third one dragged me off, and I had to start again, deeply submerged in what I thought would be a thoroughly engrossing collection. But every now and then there is a speedbump in the waves, and I had to come out for air, unsure about my thoughts about certain poems. Nonetheless, there are some really well-crafted designs scattered throughout the book, but not enough to stay with me all along. Turnbull's cover art feels like it is only partially encompassing the book, too.