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Reviews by the Clown that All Other Critics Want to Strangle with a Black Turtleneck
Drinking the Colour Blue, by Eileen Casey

Drinking the Colour Blue
by Eileen Casey
New Island, 2008


 

Presence of Mind

I admitted, when reviwing Eileen Casey's 2005 collection, Seagulls, that I have trouble telling my ass from my elbow when it comes to poetry. So, rather than make a bollox of it when reviewing 2008's Drinking the Color Blue, I surveyed the opinions of eleven random passers-by.

Important Note on Sample Population

These were genuine, actual passers-by. None of the usual talking monkeys, gangsters, mammoths, or vampires were represented in the following test subjects. Participants were:

  • Resident of Dublin, Ireland
  • Between middle-twenties and middle-aged,
  • Of Irish, Swedish, German, and other nationalities- culturally diverse.
  • Both male and female
  • Graduates of Secondary School, with at least some Third Level education
  • No previous literary qualifications were necessary in this population sample, opinions were requested to gauge Eileen Casey's appeal to the average passer-by.
    • Purpose

    To determine if Eileen Casey's POETRY could be distinguished from material that is NOT-POETRY.

    Procedure

    Step 1: Cajole passers-by to stop for two minutes.

    Step 2: Ask them to help you out by taking a short quiz, no purchase or personal information involved.

    Step 3: Hand them a sheet with the following four selections.

    Click to read Critical Mick's review of Eileen Casey's earlier collection, Seagulls

    Eileen Casey's 2005 Seagulls was the first book of poetry that Mick read in years. Click for his review.

    1.

    Thank you for your parallel worlds
    Where past, future, wretched in-betweens
    Nappies, work-shirts, age-bleached dresses,
    Make a place for me-

     
    Nights new as stars-

     

    2.

    15 September 2008, 09:28:20
    Application
    Compress or Encrypt Attributes
    iaahci.inf
    C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{7EB114D8-207F-45AE-BABD-1669715F2630}

     

    3.

    The drunken trawler lurches its midnight sprawl,
    A man could be lost in this brawl of spray.
    All night the skin of this ocean breaks,
    Unleashes dragons that ride alongside
    Dousing old wood with unfathomable depths.

     

    4.

    My name is Mr. Einstein
    And I'm so plain you can barely see me
    I've got too much on my mind
    And in my own life I'm an understudy
    My intellect is a curse to me
    I think I think too much each day
    Sources of Test Selections

    Selection 1 is and excerpt from Eileen Casey's "Mr. Einstein" from Drinking the Color Blue.

    Selection 2 is just a bunch of shit that I copied at random from a computer's operating system.

    Selection 3 is an excerpt from Eileen Casey's "Man at Sea" from Drinking the Color Blue.

    Selection 4: the lyrics to track number one, "Mr. Einstein," off one of my favorite indie-rock albums of the 1990's. An unlikely collision between the Beatles, Manchester Rave and Primus, the all-too-overlooked band were The Spent Poets.

    The Results

    Ten votes agreed that Eileen Casey's "Man at Sea" is real POETRY. Given Casey's interesting imagery and emotional focus, this is unsurprising. As ten subjects also agreed that the "15 September 2008" selection was NOT POETRY, it would appear that the average passer-by is literate and aware of the lively culture which surrounds them.

    Casey's "Mr. Einstein" received six as POETRY, with four check-marks in the NOT POETRY box. I quite liked the "nights new as stars" line, myself. This selection rated exactly the same as The Spent Poets' "Mr. Einstein," six votes for and four against. I had previously considered song lyrics as near-poetry in the way that low-alcohol beer is sometimes called "near beer." It would appear that song lyrics can actually be classified either way.

    Conclusions

    The most interesting response to the survey (figure one) was one participant who refused to mark each selection as POETRY or NOT POETRY. This subject checked their own third choice for each selection, explaining that all such material is purely subjective. That which makes a connection and becomes meaningful to one person will not inherently be poetry to another.

    Click to read Critical Mick's review of Caught in Amber: An Anthology of Poetry, Prose and Fiction edited by Eileen Casey

    Eileen Casey is not only a poet and teacher, but an editor as well. Caught in Amber: An Anthology of Poetry, Prose and Fiction bears her name on the cover.

    This explains why song lyrics and slender chapbooks of poems rate equally in the passers-by survey. It also validates the whole "Free of Rules" philosophy of the criticalmick.com site- whoo hoo!

    So: all POETRY is a personal experience. Critical Mick says: speaking for my own person, I declare that Eileen Casey writes some pretty slick poetry. Judge for yourself from my favorite example, "To the Woman Who Walked the Belly of the Moon":

     

    'Six degrees below freezing' your new husband says.
    Under the kitchen's bare bulb
    his hair, back then, is black as a seal come up from the ice.
    He says, 'the North wind brought [the snow]'
    but you don't care for that explanation do you?
     
    Preferring to think helicopters in the night drop emergency packages of moon.  

    Drinking the Color Blue is also full of birds, with seagulls, crows, trushes, starlings, kestrels, and firebirds swooping, perching or stealing through almost every page. What's up with that? I asked Eileen Casey herself. "Hope you don't have a Tippi Hedren experience," she replied.

    Further Study
    To Mick, With all best wishes and gratitude, Eileen Casey Sept 08

    Oddly enough, to promote his new band Adam Gates of The Spent Poets has a track about a Man Overboard, Drowning Not Waving that is free to download. Mr. Einstein/Mr. Einstein, Man at Sea/Man Overboard, Poet/Spent Poet.... this seems too great to be a coincidence. It has been deemed that further study is required, even if it involves additional embarassment cajoling passers-by.

    To carry out a full scientific evaluation, I will require a €230,000.00 research grant. To further Progress and prevent the core intent of lyricism from eluding Western civilization, please contact mick @ mickhalpin dot com for instructions on where to send the money or emergency packages of moon.

     

    Read Critical Mick's May 2006 interview with Eileen Casey!
    And now for an important disclaimer from Critical Mick

    Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2008 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

    Irate, huh? Managed to piss off another one? Direct your hatemail to mick @ mickhalpin dot com.

    This Page Was Last Updated On 16 September, 2008.

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