The Rocky Shore, Jenny Bornholdt (VUP, 2008) RRP $25 ISBN 9780864735805

Margaret Vos

First, let me confess that I've been a Jenny Bornholdt fan since a friend gave me Miss New Zealand. I immediately felt a connection with, and an ease about, Bornholdt's work, and it was apparent why she is a well-regarded poet.   

Second, let me complain that the cover design and font of her new collection The Rocky Shore does a disservice to the collection. The ocean-themed fabric-look cover and needlepoint font went beyond domesticity into chintz. I see the connection with her "domestic" themes, but it devalues her work by tethering her to home and family when her poems go well beyond these themes.  

Third, let me commend the content. Once again, her work speaks to me as both a poet and a person. 

Six poems comprise the collection; they connect and resonate with each other across the six years that they were written, although I doubt they neatly sum up one year each. Autobiographical in nature, the poems reveal Bornholdt's approach to poetry, family, and daily life. It seems an honest glimpse into how a poet finds or receives inspiration, converts observations into poetry, and still manages a complex if ordinary family life.

The Rocky Shore made me think about how you select - and alter - which memories (and skeletons) to share with others, and how to determine what is fitting for a poem. She is able to be personal without being confessional (in spite of the first poem's title). Bornholdt questions "what is poetry?" throughout the collection, in poems like ‘Fitter Turner': 

...At this point I remember someone commenting on
an earlier poem of mine, which resembles this one,

saying some people might think it's not poetry. Well . . .

Later, in ‘Big Minty Nose' (read the notes at the end of the book), she aptly and ably advocates the source of her work, her life, and her poetry:

...I think the garden
Is as much poem as this poem is. And the washing and the coffee

are also poem. The men next door with hammers and
saws, they have become poem, along with

 the steps and the stick insects - one red, one green -
stuck to the shed window, looking in.

In fact those lines describe up a good poet's existence as well as the sphere of Bornholdt's poetry (think Emily Dickinson). She elevates the mundane into poetry and reminds me that inspiration is found where you look for it. She merges the questions "what is poetry" with "what is garden" and "what is life" - big themes that cross geographic, social, and gender boundaries.

One feature I did not enjoy was the two-line stanza structure of most of her poems. I felt this was too artificial, and it didn't add to the meaning or rhythm of the work for me. Perhaps it was meant to create borders and enforce consideration of her words? Yet I found myself reading past the structure.   

Finally, I wonder why she didn't select her garden as a title and the basis for a cover design. Her garden provide a unifying motif and theme, and makes a better metaphor for her life and her poetry, certainly in the context of this collection.

The best poets are ones you can grow with, and with The Rocky Shore Bornholdt will continue to be a New Zealand favourite. I look forward to seeing where her garden leads her next.

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