The Yellow Middle, Neroli Cottam (Self-published, 2009) ISBN 9780473148256

Gill Ward

This self published book is a collection of the author's poems and artwork.  The book is arranged in two sections, the first being a longer selection of poems of the earth and landscape and the poet's response to   the world about her. The second section consists of two long poems which came about as a result of Cottam's Walk in Faith studies, a three year course which she completed in 2007. These poems are Lieds, or songs and incorporate biblical texts as well as short literary quotations.

Missing from this book was the ‘blurb' about the author. I looked her up and found out that she has an art and craft gallery and organises poetry readings.  From the list of acknowledgements it is obvious Cottam has published widely and been associated with many other  writers of poetry. I would have liked to know just a little more!

Cottam is a confident writer, and prolific. Poetry must flow from her pen on a daily basis! She is in tune with  sky, sea, the birds and the land around her.  She writes about it with affection and imbues her poems with a feel of heartland New Zealand.  These poems are not urban. They are populated with wildlife and vegetation more than people and buildings.  The art work also affirms this mood.  The people in the artworks are few but do seem to carry that ‘in tune with the land' feeling.

Speaking of the artwork, which is a mixture of paint and crayon and print work - I felt it deserved its own forum.  Sometimes I found it distracting as I tried to marry the art up with the poem beside it and I was confused about which medium I was responding to. Although I will say I liked the ‘Body Art' illustration that accompanied that poem.

The book itself, technically I found rather long. Perhaps another reason for having the artwork separate. Personally I like to be able to read a poetry collection (by one poet) in a sitting and then be able to reread and consider poems I like. With 184 pages the favourites get lost in the reading. Most of my New Zealand collections are somewhere between sixty and a hundred pages.  This makes for a comfortable and uncomplicated read.

Many of Cottam's poems repeat themselves. She says the same thing in several different ways, but it is still the same thing.  Therefore I loved the surprises when they came. There was much gentle humour ‘On Holiday' painted a delicious picture of dozing in a deck chair. Her re-rendering of Greek mythology, as in ‘Information from the files of  Menelaus' and ‘The return of Theseus', could not help but bring a laugh and the take on Joseph's coat of many colours was brilliant.

When Cottam went out on her own and gave us poems of life rather than environment she was at her best. These poems uplifted. The poem about eating fish and chips in the street,  ‘Consider Eating' was tight and light and accessible, as were ‘Love' and ‘At the Trading Post' (great last line!). The poem that surprised me the most and that I immediately read three times, was the jolly ‘What was Found on the Ridge of the Rouge'.

There is not space to quote but an example from ‘Making the Leap' illustrates how this poet says things you think yourself:

In the space between dreaming and waking
I feel the world in a single heart beat.

 

 

 

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