This is the third book of poetry I have read by the talented Frank Prem over the past year and that sends a strong message about the quality of his writing.
Each of Frank's books has been a story told in poetry, with a distinctive beginning, middle and ending. It is a unique and interesting way of approaching poetry writing and it really does work for the subject matters and themes of Frank's collections.
This third book depicts Frank's career as a psychiatric nurse for over forty years. The book is divided into sections or chapters, namely, Prologue, Asylum town, student daze, managing: acute observations, hostel life and epilogue. As you can see from these sections, the poetry does read in the same way as a story, albeit, one based on fact.
Frank's poems are moving and intense and his ability to share deep insight into the specific situations and circumstances of each patient and event features as a poem, is quite amazing. Frank's parents both worked for the same asylum and so his poetic experiences go right back to when he was a boy, seeing life at this institution through the eyes of his mother and father.
Some short extracts of poems that I found particularly impactful are as follows:
"except for a teardrop
that forms in her eye
when the little boy
with a small voice asks
mama
when I grow up
if I can earn
a hundred dollars a week
do you think my wife
can stay at home
and not have to work every day"
From a hundred dollars every week
"a woman
talking back to voices
preoccupied and distant
reaches across
takes my colleague's hair
in one hand
and drives her head
into the solid wall"
From birdies at mealtime
"and the nurse who cut her down
had already lived this
once
this was her second one
the same all over again"
From from long black shoelaces
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