Islands poets sing

of grief, love

Solaua. A Secret Embryo. By Momoe Malietoa Von Reiche.

You, the Choice of My Parents.

By Konai Helu Thaman. Where Leaves Had Fallen. By Celo Kulagoe. All published by MANA Publications, in vari ous forms of association with the South Pacific Creative Arts Society. Poru Poru Solomon Islands Lullabies. By 12 Solomon Islands Women. Pub lished by the University of the South Pacific Solomon Islands Centre. Civilized Girl. By Jully Sipolo. Published by the South Pacific Creative Arts Society.

The voices of poets in the islands, particularly those of women, are being heard in creasingly through the activi ties of the South Pacific Cre ative Arts Society, and the University of the South Pacific.

Many of the poems now gath ered into these individual col lections have appeared earlier in Mana, the South Pacific journal of language and litera ture circulated from Suva.

The three contributions from Solomon Islands are all recent publications, and two mark significant beginnings for Solomon Islands women.

Poru Poru, a collection of Solomon Islands lullabies printed in the languages of the islands and accompanied by an English translation, was the outcome of the first women writers’ workshop held in the

country. For the mothers at tending the workshop, lullabies seemed a natural starting point for their as yet untapped cre ative reserves. Photographs of parents and infants add visual interest to this modest booklet, and interesting notes explain the origins of the songs. This is a useful step in the overall task of preservation of island cul ture.

Civilized Girl is Jully Sipolo’s first published work and a unique expression of the views and feelings of a Solomon Islands woman. The 20 poems appear to relate closely to the young author’s own experiences through them she is search ing to come to terms with all the unfairness and hard knocks which life has so far dealt out to her. Her verse is constantly questioning, but she seems to find few answers.

There is a developing talent in Mrs Sipolo’s work. The Bookworm’, for instance, is a small, compact and very clever delineation of a man, where every word carries impact. ‘A Man’s World’ is a powerful statement of the worse than second-class status of women in her world; ‘A brother can make a living out of his sisters!’

Jully Sipolo must continue to write. Her style at present is immature, but greater experi ence should develop confidence in her own simple straightfor ward phraseology to express the emotion which, in many of these

poems, often seems hidden be neath the calm cliches.

The third collection from Solomon Islands, Where Leaves Had Fallen, contains poems written over a period of eight years by Celo Kulagoe, who is at present studying education at the University of the South Pacific.

This writing is much more sophisticated, reflecting the author’s extensive education, and a variety of style and form has been attempted. As with Jully Sipolo, there is anger in many of the poems, against exploitation, priests, religion.

But small incidents are also recounted which give insight into the meaning of life, and the author’s personal philosophy.

Some of the poems seem to me unnecessarily obscure is ‘The Shrimp’ a hymn to some mystic sexual experience? I sometimes wondered what kind of audience Celo Kulagoe is writing for.

The best piece in the book heralds a small group of love poems, where a clear, lyric voice is heard, rising from deep felt emotion. ‘lf I were to write a poem’ is a beautiful love song, trailing a faint reminiscence in places to Shakespeare’s sonnets to his lady: my eyes read sonnets of your face, couplets of your breasts; my ears play symphonies of your breath, voice and laughter, and I fly to the dance of your gait.

From Tonga comes a reprint of a collection by Konai Helu Thaman first published in 1974, when she joined the staff of the University of the South Pacific.

She has lived in New Zealand and the States as well as Tonga, and the poems reflect experi ences from widely differing locations and cultures.

A simple call to her fellow women to ‘take a chance and make the break’, mingles with poems of fear about white discrimination, the clashing of cultures, fellow Tongans dis placed in alien environments. In California: ‘Hey people, I am lost;/1 am here/We are all here/And we aren’t.’

The title poem, ‘You, the choice of my parents’, is ad dressed to the man chosen by the writer’s parents as her husband. It is a moving and honest lament telling of resig nation and acceptance of filial duty, but clinging throughout to a free spirit which cannot be subjugated: But when my duties are fulfilled My spirit will return to the land of my birth Where you will find me no more Except for the weeping willows along the shore.

The final, and perhaps most accomplished, selection comes from Western Samoa. Momoe Malietoa Von Reiche is an artist and a mother of seven, and this is her first collection of poems. The style is vibrant and strong, words deliberate, care fully chosen, hard-hitting. The meaning and emotion in the poems are unmistakable, often couched in beautifully wrought imagery drawn from nature and sexuality.

In ‘Rain’, Mrs Von Reiche gives vent to her grief at her husband’s infidelity while she carries their child. She becomes the raindrops being absorbed into the earth (seen as her husband) ‘turning me/Into a stream that would/Cry into the sea’. ‘Of You’ is a poem of strict rhythm and form dealing, by contrast, with the most fluid of subjects longing for another person. It is superbly done.

Many poems voice the com mon theme of bitterness against men, their demanding sexu ality, their infidelities and lack of kindness and understanding.

The book closes with ‘A Final Wish’ a universal outpouring of female anger at the pain and restrictions placed on a wife by child-rearing and a cruel mate. ‘My final wish/Is not revenge/But maybe someday/ Someone will do more than/ Break your heart/Then you’ll honestly know how it/Feels to be hurt.’

Mrs Von Reiche is an intelli gent and sensitive writer and it is to be hoped this will not be

her last book of poems.

Rudd.