And I Will Make of You a Vowel Sound

by Morag Anderson

In her second chapbook, And I Will Make of You a Vowel Sound, Morag Anderson places centre stage an unlikely cast of neglected, exploited, and unsung characters. These poems uncover many of the contradictions of life lived in the female body and bear witness to highly personal stories. Confident and assured of voice, she navigates womanhood and its attendant desires and abuses, permitting the reader to embrace the power and vulnerability encased in the female form. Anderson’s delicate choice of words 'unlace restraint’ and take us to the limits of the female body’s potential.

Genres: Feminism

36 pages, Paperback

Published May 24, 2024

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morag Anderson was the 2023 Makar of the Federation of Writers in Scotland. She won the Aryamati Pamphlet Prize for this second chapbook of 25 poems. Her subjects are ordinary people: abandoned children, a young woman on a council estate, construction workers, and a shoplifter who can’t afford period products. The verse is rich with alliteration, internal rhymes and neologisms. Although sub/urban settings predominate, there are also poems dedicated to birds and to tracking the seasons’ march along a river. There is much sibilance to “Little Wren,” while “Cormorant Speaks” enchants with its fresh compound words: “Barefoot in mudslick streambeds I pathpick over rotsoft limbs, wade neckdeep in suncold loch”. “No Ordinary Tuesday, 2001” is about 9/11 and “None of the Nine Were There” expresses feminist indignation at the repeal of Roe v. Wade: “all nine were busy / stitching rules into the seams / of bleeding wombs.” A trio of poems depicts the transformation of matrescence: “Long after my shelterbody shucks / her reluctant skull / from my shell, // her foetal cells— / rosefoamed in my core— / migrate to mend my flensed heart.” Impassioned and superbly articulated stuff. This is a confident poet whose work I was glad to discover.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Debbie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was teaching English, poetry was one my favourite things to teach, yet I very rarely find myself picking up a poetry book nowadays. When I was offered the opportunity to read and review this chapbook, I thought it was the perfect way to dip my toe back in.
I have really enjoyed picking up this book and reading a poem or two. They’re poems that you want to reread several times as they’re so powerful and certainly don’t shy away from some hard hitting themes about womanhood. Emotions resonate so loudly in each and every word. These are poems to return to, to mull over, to digest slowly.
Thank you Fly On The Wall Press for sharing this book with me.