{"id":2165,"date":"2018-01-23T10:26:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/?p=2165"},"modified":"2018-01-23T10:26:26","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:26:26","slug":"running-alongside-a-woman-catching-fire-angela-alaimo-odonnells-still-pilgrim-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/running-alongside-a-woman-catching-fire-angela-alaimo-odonnells-still-pilgrim-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Running Alongside a \u201cWoman Catching Fire:\u201d Angela Alaimo O\u2019Donnell\u2019s Still Pilgrim: Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

This review for Still Pilgrim<\/em> was published in\u00a0\u00a0Adanna<\/i><\/a>, Issue 7, 2017.
\nMaryanne Hannan<\/p>\n

To a world where stillness is elusive, the notion of pilgrimage quaint, and paradox an intellectual stretch, Angela Alaimo O\u2019Donnell serves up her latest collection, Still Pilgrim: Poems<\/a><\/em> (Paraclete Press, 2017). In truth, I have been a fan of O\u2019Donnell\u2019s work for many years, her seven poetry collections, three non-fiction books, her numerous insightful reviews and essays. But I\u2019d hazard a guess that Still Pilgrim<\/em> will become a classic, one that readers will turn to for many years to come.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>An author Afterword describes the genesis of the project, a visit to Herman Melville\u2019s grave near her home. In the poem she wrote about that experience, she addressed him as \u201cstill pilgrim,\u201d and was thereafter struck by the many ways it is conceivable and necessary to be both still and \u201csimultaneously on pilgrimage toward one\u2019s destiny\u201d (Afterword, 70) in life and, in Melville\u2019s case as a writer, after death. In this collection, O\u2019Donnell takes up the challenge of probing the tensions and insights in the oxymoronic persona of a \u201cstill pilgrim,\u201d using the stuff of her own life.<\/p>\n

Despite the many particulars of time, space, event and personal proclivities, the book never seems autobiographical. Carefully constructed, yes; as described in the Afterword, it contains a prologue and an epilogue, four sections of poems, fourteen poems per section all of them (fourteen line) sonnets. The gloss on the book and its further suggestion that the sections correspond to seasons of the year and the seasons of life, as well as the liturgical calendar can be read as an added bonus, or as a belated surprise. The poems themselves, sonnets of great skill and diversity, speak for themselves, or in the words of the Still Pilgrim<\/em>, \u201cEvery pilgrim is a truthteller. \/ Every pilgrim is a liar.\u201d (\u201cPrologue: To Be a Pilgrim, xiii) In this spirit, all is made new again.<\/p>\n

Unlike the traditional Pilgrim\u2019s Progress, O\u2019Donnell\u2019s contemporary pilgrim need not advance under the rubric of steady improvement, yet develops in her own way from one section to the next. Rather than negotiating a larger universality as the allegorical hero Christian does, this pilgrim, clothed in particulars, manages the same. Many of O\u2019Donnell\u2019s poems play off Catholic-Christian references, as well as familiarity with literary figures, Keats, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Frost and, of course, Flannery. To enjoy the subtleties, the poignancy and even the humor of this book, readers need to share the pillars of O\u2019Donnell\u2019s spiritual-cultural-intellectual world, but not her dogma.<\/p>\n

Each section offers a, shall we call it?, cosmologically chronological development: \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Invents Dawn,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Recreates Creation,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Considers a Hard Teaching,\u201d and \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Recalls the Beatitudes.\u201d Each section ends with an assessment of where the poet might be in her personal chronology: \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Runs,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Gives Herself Driving Directions,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Addresses Father Solstice,\u201d and \u201cThe Still Pilgrim\u2019s Refrain.\u201d The poem titles themselves further the tensions and paradoxes of the central \u201cstill pilgrim\u201d metaphor.<\/p>\n

If, as O\u2019Donnell suggests, the sections correspond to the seasons of life, then no surprise to discover poems of youth and childhood in the first section: \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Recollects Her Childhood,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Honors Her Mother,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Learns to Write,\u201d to name a few. But, as a group, they are not typecast or expected. My favorite \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Tells a Fish Story\u201d evoking Melville goes against the grain. From \u201cFind the fish you need to kill and kill it,\u201d the first line challenge, the poem concludes: \u201cDid you really believe there\u2019d come a day \/ when you would be the one that got away?\u201d (13). A nice set-up for the last poem, mentioned above: \u201cShe ran like rage. She ran like desire. \/ She ran like a woman catching fire\u201d (\u201cThe Still Pilgrim Runs,\u201d 16).<\/p>\n

The second section sees more gain than loss, the prime of life: \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Becomes a Mother,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Sings to Her Child,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Hears a Diagnosis,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Discovers Botero\u2019s Adam & Eve.\u201d Hovering over all is the realization: \u201cSummer comes once and never stays\u201d (\u201cThe Still Pilgrim\u2019s Love Song to Lost Summer,\u201d 31).<\/p>\n

In the third section, (can it be autumn already?) are \u201cThe Still Pilgrim\u2019s Displacement,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim\u2019s Insomnia,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Talks to Her Body,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Faces the Wall,\u201d the final couplet of \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Considers the Eye:\u201d \u201cThe truth the wise eye grieves and knows, \/ that one day it must close\u201d (43). But a radical acceptance of mortality undergirds it all: \u201cYou sing with me even when \/ I sing the same old song again\u201d (\u201cThe Still Pilgrim Talks to Her Body,\u201d 42)<\/p>\n

The fourth section opens with another dawn, slightly reminiscent of Eliot: \u201cof how we bear the miracle \/ and find ourselves where we belong\u201d (\u201cThe Still Pilgrim\u2019s Thoughts Upon Rising,\u201d 51). Other poems attest to a joyful resiliency, even a recognition that each season contains them every other one: \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Recounts Another Annunciation,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim\u2019s Easter Morning Song,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Imagines the Eucharist,\u201d \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Welcomes Pentecost\u201d and \u201cThe Still Pilgrim\u2019s Penance.\u201d Perhaps a time paradox underlies the space through which the still pilgrim traverses. Or to share the final couplet of \u201cThe Still Pilgrim Celebrates Spring:\u201d \u201cAll that leaves returns. It\u2019s fact. \/ The light we thought we lost comes back\u201d (60).<\/p>\n

Angela O\u2019Donnell\u2019s Still Pilgrim: Poems<\/em><\/a> can be enjoyed as a whole and in parts, not once, but many times over. I highly recommend this book to all readers interested in a woman\u2019s journey, expressed in the context of her faith, and also to those no longer excited by the sonnet form. They will be surprised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This review for Still Pilgrim was published in\u00a0\u00a0Adanna, Issue 7, 2017. Maryanne Hannan To a world where stillness is elusive, the notion of pilgrimage quaint, and paradox an intellectual stretch, Angela Alaimo O\u2019Donnell serves up her latest collection, Still Pilgrim: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paraclete-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}