The Propaganda Poster Girl. Amy Brown. Victoria University Press.
Reviewed by Michael Byrne
Amy Brown was born in 1984. The Propaganda Poster Girl featured poetry Brown wrote from the point of view of a New Zealander and a traveller. She grew up in Hastings before moving to Wellington to study English literature and philosophy at Victoria University. She taught English and travelled for six months in South East Asia in 2005, and subsequently completed an MA in creative writing. Brown completed her PhD on contemporary epic poetry at the University of Melbourne in 2012. The Propaganda Poster Girl was published in 2008. There are poems in it about doing work (‘Hamish’s Boulangerie’):
Be careful of your fingers, he’d warn
in Glaswegian when I used the machine
to slice pastrami for the baguettes.
It was early in the morning. If I forgot a hair-tie
we’d wait for the chemist next door
to open – he’d give me a dollar from the till.
Nothing fancy, not a scrunchie!
I could have used string.
In his rusted mirror I’d try a different style.
You have beautiful hair, he once said
while I rinsed chocolate off a mixing bowl.
Long and shiny, like my wife’s.
The poet catches the reader off guard. The man she works with could be gay, until the last line which lets the reader know he is not. The last line in the poem has the alliteration of ‘long’ and ‘like’. In another poem, there is a poetic device (assonance) in the title (‘Baba Yaga’):
Lyall Bay is often the scene
of tempests, everything pelted
with salt water, rust spreading
like ill humour. The police
are often patrolling in Lyall Bay.
When the cumulonimbus sit like fat
white cauldrons steaming with cirrus,
look out for the brush strokes –
someone’s been sweeping the sky
clean as linoleum after an accident.
In this poem, Brown displays a touch of the imagist (a necessity if a poet wants to create a sense of atmosphere). While ‘The Brain’ is a longer poem. An extract from it reads:
and the
distant
sea will
make me
reel back
to hold
the hand
rail.
This thumbnail sketch is something of a life affirmation. She has the safety of the rail. Another person who is holding stuff is the girl featured in the poem ‘The Propaganda Poster Girl’. While Brown holds the rail, the girl holds a flower:
I
She has emerged from the bamboo forest
with a white, fleshy-petalled flower
and her gun.
Save the country,
save the youth
she is supposed to say
because she is young and solid looking.
She looks out at her admirers
and critics, distracting them with her stare,
the clever pattern in her headscarf,
that poorly foreshortened thumb
and dark pink fist.
She is flat and smooth.
Foreigners smile at her,
wanting to look good.
The subject of this poem is conveniently displayed on the front of the book. The fact there are four extrapolations on the subject is impressive. The poem is substantial. The poet also utilises free verse in this poem. However, on another occasion she does break out of her free verse comfort zone and writes a villanelle. She displays technical control, even if she does not fully adhere to the classic rhyme scheme for a villanelle (‘Brides in the Bath’):
I’d just always wanted to bathe in a tub with claws
and golden taps, smelling of lavender like a real lady.
He’d ushered me in and said, ‘Darling, it’s all yours.’
My father taught me history, about politics and wars,
King Henry and his poor wives, but it slipped my mind.
I’d just always wanted to bathe in a tub with claws.
‘May I join you?’ he said, in a voice he’d used before.
I wriggled to make room, but was secretly annoyed;
he’d ushered me in and said, ‘Darling, it’s all yours.’
He soaped my back too firmly, like I was one of his chores,
then gradually pushed my head down towards the plug.
I’d just always wanted to bathe in a tub with claws.
You are unique, he told me, you haven’t any flaws.
At the shop I’d always enjoyed being his best antique.
He’d ushered me in and said, ‘Darling it’s all yours.’
Cleverer girls than me have let down their guard
for men who only deal with priceless things.
I’d just always wanted to bathe in a tub with claws.
He’d ushered me in and said, ‘Darling it’s all yours.’
‘Brides in the Bath’ is both sensual and alluring. Brown also has a sense of fun. Brown would have been twenty-three or twenty-four when The Propaganda Poster Girl was published. She evinces the exuberance of youth in the book. She is a young poet who has an eye for interesting subject matter during the writing of the book. Dreams become poems and in her poem ‘New Zealand’ she speaks for New Zealand. The Australian reader learns some of the culture of New Zealand. The Propaganda Poster Girl is worth reading just for that.
Michael Byrne 