Kate Rogers : The thing with feathers, by Jessica Outram

The thing with feathers, Jessica Outram
Piquant Press, 2022

 

 

 

The Thing with Feathers is Cobourg Poet Laureate Jessica Outram’s first poetry collection. It is a courageous journey of self-exploration and coming to terms with trauma. The title, based on Emily Dickinson’s well-known lines about hope perching in the soul, opens the door to eventual healing. However, many of the poems in the first two sections are about the struggle with depression linked to a struggle to recognise supressed trauma. Her collection raises the question How does anyone learn to live with a traumatic past? The process of doing that is the core of the book.

We are introduced to the speaker’s reflective journey into and out of despair in the poem “Beginning.” She tells us that “old scaffolding / leans courage ladders / on new truth platforms.” In this poem “house plants / turn wild,” suggesting the speaker’s surprise at her own growth. In “If She Had a Secret Garden,” the speaker’s “tangled prayers climb stone walls.”

The poem “Falling into Blankness” evokes the speaker’s depression and exhaustion well. As an educator who is also a writer I can relate to how hard it can be to reach for creativity after a full day of teaching and being on your feet: “in the evening she paints misty truths / while hands and feet sizzle.”

The lines in which the speaker describes how she “craves an overcast sky / to quiet the mornings // …blends mud and clouds” and being “soaked in fog / like a lighthouse on a humid island” are also very relatable and beautifully evoke Cobourg harbour.

In her role as Cobourg Poet Laureate Jessica Outram maintains a blog she calls “Sunshine in a Jar.” Jars feature in many of her poems in The Thing with Feathers. The jar poems in the book range from nostalgia to despair. The poem “Something Inside Her Childhood” focuses on positive memories, beginning with the her mom’s inviting “strawberry jam [on] the kitchen counter.” 

Among the collection’s most courageously vulnerable poems is “Open the Jar” in which the speaker removes the lid on her memory. It whispers to her that “a piece of the story is missing.”

Jessica Outram is also Principal of Indigenous Education for the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board and an important role model. Her students’ struggles contribute to her understanding of her own adolescence in the poem “Open the Jar.”

The speaker effectively evokes how the intensity of her students in turmoil becomes a trigger for her: “A morning swarming at 7:45. / Two hundred teenagers / chase a Grade 10 girl.” 

Soon pepper spray engulfs classrooms, staircases, washrooms. It is a “toxic shot.” A 15-year-old boy is in handcuffs. A student dies. The speaker passes another student her graded work and learns that the girl’s boyfriend is the one in jail, charged with attempted murder. Reflecting on the school day the speaker realizes “Once upon a time / my jar was empty, / the lid twisted tight.”

In the next poem, “She Remembers and Wants to Forget,” the speaker’s journaling reveals to her the “howling hands / memories spilling like blood.”

The speaker of the powerful poem “In a Jar” starts each line with “when” and doesn’t flinch: “she was there / when she wrote poems about death / when her novel started with rape.” The poem reveals the speaker’s suffering and inner struggle: “when her heart beat hot fear” and “when your insults felt like truth.”

In “What Would Great-Auntie Think?” The speaker uncovers more pain: “remembers at nine— / You’re too fat for chocolates, / Auntie said snapping the lid…” // —this mirror haunting her for years.”

In the self-aware poem “The Siren Call of Depression” the speaker sinks “caught between / breath and panic / without gills.” She bravely shares that “…it seems safer to hold… than to claim / some air / as her own.”

Other strong poems include those about the poet’s Georgian Bay Ojibway and Metis ancestors. In the beautiful and moving “And Still She Shines: Take Back the Night” the speaker grieves, “her fists / wrapped around keys /…“sometimes losing to fear.” She remembers and honours the “women in red dresses gone too / beyond medicine wheels.”

In “When She Found Her Voice” the speaker explores how connecting with her heritage through holding a “Smudge Feather” “made her cry.” In the next poem “This Feather Sets Everything in Motion” the speaker learns to “build wings / fly North like her grandmothers // hearing their heartbeats among stars.” In the wistful  poem “If She Had Met Her Noohkoom” the speaker’s grandmother gifts her her moccasins and and her wisdom: “Noohkoom says, wait / then…look at the whole tree at once / all the branches together, connected.”

The persona poems in the voice of a match girl ancestor are also among the most deeply felt and well-crafted in the book.

Following in the wake of such brave and well-crafted poems some pieces fell short. Several poems would have had more impact if they had strived for fresher, more original language. Cliché’s and hackneyed metaphors in the poems “She Wants to Feel Special on Ordinary Days,” “When She Thinks About Self-Love”, “Thirteen Lessons That Need Unlearning” and “It’s Time to See What’s Really There” do not support the otherwise strong collection and could have been left out.

That being said, much original figurative language and many beautiful lines appear in The Thing With Feathers and have been quoted in this review. The bravery and emotional honesty of the collection are its greatest strength. I recommend The Thing With Feathers for the power of Jessica Outram’s personal journey and the courage it took to share it.

 

 

 

 

 

Kate Rogers’ poetry recently appeared in the “Neighbours” issue of SubTerrain and the following anthologies: Looking Back at Hong Kong (CUHK Press), The Beauty of Being Elsewhere and Dove Tails: Letters from the Self to the World, the 10^th Anniversary Writing for Peace Anthology. Her essay “The Accident,” appeared in the Spring 2021 Windsor Review.

Kate’s reviews have recently appeared in Ricepaper journal, Arc Poetry Magazine and Prism International.

Kate re-patriated to Canada in late 2019 after teaching tertiary level language through literature and related courses in Hong Kong for two decades. Her work can be viewed at: https://katerogers.ca/

Jessica Outram : The Work of Poet Laureate in Cobourg, Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

This story of community and poetry begins with a spontaneous lunch. In the summer of 2010, the Spirit of the Hills Writers’ group invited me to speak at their breakfast meeting in Grafton, Ontario. As everyone was leaving, Gwynn asked if I’d like to go for lunch so we could continue to chat. I had crossed paths with Gwynn for years in writing groups in the Greater Toronto Area. I could talk to writers all day every day, so it was an easy yes, I’d love lunch. We chose a restaurant patio in Cobourg. Downtown Cobourg shines in July with vibrant flower baskets and open shop doors. The local food, beautiful beach, and presence of the arts called to me at every turn.

“I could live here,” I said.

“Then why don’t you?” Gwynn asked.

By early July 2011, I had a new job in the Northumberland region as a High School Vice Principal and I had moved to Cobourg. I feel grateful to live in a place that inspires me. Poetry is about risk.

 

Cobourg is alive with poetry. I was amazed by how easy it was to connect with other writers. In the fall of 2011, I attended my first meeting with the Cobourg Poetry Workshop. It started a relationship with another local group of writers. Eric Winter was Cobourg’s first Poet Laureate (1997-2010). His legacy lives on through the poets here and the spirit of our poetry community.  I was drawn in by his kindness, insight, and generosity. When he read a poem, we were transported. Eric knew how to build community and always encouraged poets to write and share their poetry. He died in December 2019 and he continues to be deeply missed by our community.

Jill Battson was Cobourg’s second Poet Laureate (2010-2011). She celebrated our poetry community by featuring poets in the local paper.

Ted Amsden was Cobourg’s third Poet Laureate (2011-2019). His legacy project was Stanza Room Only, a community poetry project. It is a rectangle of sidewalk, painted purple, and open to anyone who wishes to use chalk to display poetry. Ted often read poetry at events: Canada Day, the Mayor’s Levee on New Year’s Day, at Town Council meetings, and at our local reading series.

Over the years, Cobourg has hosted many visiting poets, a poetry festival, poetry contests, and poetry displays. The Poet Laureate in Cobourg has a rich history of supporting Earth Day and ecology projects too.

 

I’m humbled to be in the company of such talented writers. In June 2019, I became Cobourg’s fourth Poet Laureate. My term is for four years with an option to renew for an additional four years. The benefit of being in the position for a longer term is that more work can get done. Poetry is relationship.

The mission of Poet Laureate in Cobourg is “to honour and nurture the expression of life in Cobourg’s past, present and future and to establish the reputation of Cobourg as a culturally dynamic community” (From the Town of Cobourg’s description of the role).

This includes honouring and supporting the legacies of Cobourg Poets Laureate who have gone before me, celebrating Cobourg through engaging the community in writing and reading poetry, and introducing new projects to promote local voices.

My first goals were to get to know the local poets through their poetry and to use technology to build community. Poetry Present is a weekly email series featuring a local poet or a poet with a connection to the area. In July 2021, we extended it to also include any poets from anywhere who may want to connect with us. My vision is that this email list would become a ‘go-to’ for all things poetry in our town and nearby.

In 2020, my second project began a new annual tradition, an eChapbook for Earth Day. We have created two: Light in My Eyes (2020) and Lessons from the Earth (2021).

In 2021, the third project began with a new monthly tradition: Poetry Invites, a monthly invitation to write poetry emailed to subscribers of Poetry Present. We find inspiration in the landscape, people, and places in Cobourg. These prompts led to our evolving eChapbook: Cobourg Present. And this summer I’ve started a new monthly column featuring a poem by a local writer and a letter to them, Letter to a Poet. Poetry is everywhere.

One of the highlights of my term so far was crowd-sourcing ideas for a poem about hockey for the 2020 Mayor’s Levee. Then, later that week I was invited to read the poem at a Hometown Hockey event. Poetry is for everyone.

Most of my term has been during the pandemic. Being a Poet Laureate looks different in these times. Events are online. Community groups meet in video chats. Town celebrations are pre-recorded with a videographer. We have found ways to adapt and share our voices. Soon we will be able to gather again for live readings and events. I’m curious to know what the poets have been writing about these days. Poets can shine a light on what’s not working and on what’s possible. Often the poet can capture complex issues in the simplest of ways. Poetry is about connection.

 

 

 

 

Jessica Outram is Cobourg's 4th Poet Laureate. She is a Métis writer and educator with roots in the Georgian Bay Métis Community. Jessica has lived in Cobourg for over 10 years, working in Northumberland as Vice Principal and as Principal of area Elementary and High Schools. In August, she begins a new position as Principal of Indigenous Education, supporting all schools K-12 in Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. She is on the steering committee for the Northumberland Festival of the Arts, works with the SONG and SONGtech programs, sings in the Safe Harbour choir, and has been an active volunteer with Northumberland Players. She is co-host of Hummingbird (a podcast about creativity) and the owner of Creativity Coaching Canada. In September 2021, her most recent poetry collection The Thing with Feathers will be released by Piquant Press.