Dreadful Wind & Rain

by Diane Gilliam

Once upon a time, there lived a girl whose story was not her own. . .

So the story goes: Neglected and abused by her family, eclipsed by her elder and more beautiful sister, a young girl longs for happily-ever-after, for something, someone to rescue her. She is soon swept away into the next chapter of her life: marriage―a promising world mirroring Old Testament stories and fairy tale traditions. But loving just anyone and living the age-old “ever-after” narrative, as it turns out, fails to bring true happiness after all. Dragged down by a destructive marriage, her sister’s continued manipulations, and the growing weight of roles and expectations created by others at her back, she must choose between continuing in her familiar, complacent life, or boldly breaking free―and finally making her own way.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published April 24, 2017

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of these poems are about the dark side of sisterhood: jealousy, betrayal, and bitterness. The story of Leah and Rachel is a frequent point of reference, with the poet prioritizing the perspective of the slighted older sister. Perhaps perversely, I preferred the poems that weren’t about Leah; most of my favorites are from Part III, “Or Else.” I loved “Still Joy,” about a sudden twinge of desire to own a green rocking chair at age 50, and “Three Things That Happened Yesterday,” about the ordinariness of daily life alongside its potential to generate greatness; as the narrator addresses the bag of yarn she buys in the third stanza, “You just won’t believe … all the things you are going to be.” I find the book’s subtitle a little strange and misleading; it colors what you imagine you’ll find and sets you up to have expectations that aren’t met. Leave that off the book cover and you’ve got a great collection for readers of Adrienne Rich and Melissa Range.

I won a galley in a Twitter giveaway.

Some favorite lines:

“Whatever it is she is wanting, it is not / too much to ask.” (from “Girl”)

“Lots of ships have already sailed and I wasn’t on any of them and none came to save me from anything I’ve wanted rescued from.” (first line of “Lots of Ships”)

“my days get by me and by me / and still I don’t know / how to figure out what it is / I need.” (from “How I Don’t Know”)

“the face beaten like a plowshare / into the shape of what happens to it” (from “Psalm of Leah”)

“It is not wrong / to pause on the threshold, here at the very / end of the story. Behind you, everything ever. / Before you, on the dark road, / everything after.” (the end of “Leaving the Story,” the final poem)

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brilliant second poetry collection from the gifted poet Diane Gilliam is a surprising leap from her first. Kettle Bottom told the story of the 1920-1921 West Virginia coal mining strike from a myriad of voices, but none of them her own. This latest offering has the author in her own voice, though often couched in myth and legend, dealing with the subject of sisterly betrayal and a family’s sacrifice of one daughter in favor of the other, from the point of view of the less-favored girl, the betrayed woman.

The story of Leah and Rachel threads its way through many of these poems, sisters who shared the same husband, as well as the image of the Handless Maiden in the form of a girl repeatedly asked to hold herself back so that others--the preferred daughter, the husband--can shine. Gilliam as Leah, as the Handless Maiden, now speaks for herself in this devastating new collection.

Gilliam’s strength in these poems is her quiet sureness—no flamboyant metaphors, no tantrums, no tears, only a quiet that begins to rumble like thunder in the mountains, and echoes with a fury that recalls a line in one poem, a woman who has had enough of being overlooked, of being the handless maiden, and is gathering herself into her own arms:

Let me pick up a broom and sweep
nothing under the rug...

Her husband’s betrayal with the sister for whose sake she was asked to hold herself back is the turning point of the book, a very different line on betrayal than that in Anne Carson’s The Beauty of the Husband. Here the betrayal begins from the beginning, with one’s own sister, one’s family, it’s not about the marriage but the family constellation. From the poem “Sorting the Seeds:”

Something like that happened
in my marriage, says a woman
at the end of that summer. And it was
your sister? I ask. No, she says.
It was my best friend,
I don’t have a sister.

My favorite poems are from the final section of the book, After, as the protagonist sorts out the aftermath of these myriad betrayals in order to reclaim her soul for herself. “Where I’m From” thinks through the facts of the extremely personal to the mysteries of human existence:

"I am from Hopie and Odell, from Rumi’s anteroom
of souls—some kind of late night wedding chapel
where, as my parents married, my soul stood up
at the sweetness of their faces. Yes, I said.
I will. I do."

"...I am from the uncool table of girls who polished rocks... "
"...from learning to say Grandma instead of Mamaw, and to not tell about the poke
Daddy pulled from the side of the road for supper..."

"I am from ten years of graduate school and always only one
right answer for every twenty-five students., from the full professor
who said to me, as I sat in his office eight months gone--shame
I was having babies instead of books..."

"I am from the same waiting room
as you—the one where God said Who will go
to this world I made only out of things that die
and find out for us how much sweetness that adds?
And we all raised our hands."

Another poem from this section, “An Invisible Story,” gives inner life a form:

"I learned this week from my reading
on the shadow that each person has an invisible
tree growing inside, making the kind
of progress that needs to be made no matter
what is happening on the outside.
And if a person goes long enough
without looking to that tree, well,
that’s when you get
nailed to it..."

This book has earned a permanent place within me.

[Steph Lovelady · Rating 4 out of 5]

In poems that allude to the Biblical story of Rachel and Leah, a murder ballad about one sister who kills another, and the fairy tale of the Handless Maiden, Gilliam explores the girlhood, marriage, and post-divorce life of a woman haunted by her early, often toxic relationships. As you might guess, the sister relationship is key here. In the last third or so of the book, the now middle-aged woman finally finds her own, quiet but sure voice. A powerful, moving collection.

It was nice to see some prose poems included. I like that form and don't see it often.

[Rosemary Royston · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of Gilliam's book can be found here:http://www.stilljournal.net/bookrevie...

[Eitan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good poems

[Sun Literary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poet’s poet. Diane’s words are patently churned till ready, then they become something rich. I’ve had the privilege of knowing her and hearing her read aloud, which is a treat, not only to hear her but to see how a roomful of poets and writers lean in to listen. Acquire her poetry books - they fit together like a crazy, beautiful quilt. I’m mixing my metaphors but cream to butter and patches to quilts are akin to what Diane does extraordinarily — from pen to page.