by PJ Thomas
Rating: *****
Drifting is the third book of poems in PJ Thomas’s Water Trilogy*, although it can certainly be read as a standalone volume.
Drifting could be viewed as a little daunting, containing just under one hundred poems, but it’s effortlessly readable and accessible. Thomas’s poetry is poised, relatable, and emotionally resonant; there is no pomposity or cryptic language here.
The poems flow with immediacy, although deceptively well-crafted and considered, words appear to fall from Thomas in a fluid, organic manner that perfectly suits the liquid analogy of this collection.
Overall, but not exclusively, they deal with love in all its permutations and stages. The poems are reflective, almost hesitant in places, although they’re intricately layered with every surface and subtext of emotive connotation and nuanced allusion. She is especially good when writing about the electric, often obsessive quality of the early stages of an attraction.
Thomas uses the rhythms of nature, especially diurnal/nocturnal cycles to illustrate, enhance, or provide metaphorical reference to the feelings she expresses. Emotions that, often, are simply too intense or complex to be baldly articulated. The Line of the Horizon and The Start of a Simple Day are perfect examples that use the cadence of an early morning routine to represent sentiment.
The juxtaposition of celebration, mourning, and regret within the sphere of love are primary drivers of her poems in this book. In one of the later verses, Forever, she states, “Why do love and death / so often hold hands?” and many of the poems explore this symbiotic relationship in both its metaphysical and literal meaning. The Cards We’re Dealt is one of the earlier poems to showcase this dynamic.
Several poems are shot through with the tang of bitter futility pertaining either to love or life itself. Although these poems contain a deep well of affecting sadness, there runs through them all a tentative thread of fateful acceptance, a relinquishment that adheres to the natural or higher order of things, and which eventually affords some element of catharsis. Consequently, they are not depressing to read but, instead, gently reassuring.
Further, there is a clear, strong sense of who Thomas is as a poet. Her voice carries confidently through her work, drawing the reader in. Relatively few verses fully line rhyme but they scan with smooth confidence and an easy, readability.
Thomas has kept the structure neat with eye/half rhymes, hooks, gentle lyricism, and some lovely little flourishes. “Just the rain / typing on the drainpipe” was a wonderfully inventive phrase from Fall into Tomorrow. Further, “…the shameful and shining / things I have done” from If is mesmerizingly good, in its pure honest simplicity and clever use of alliterative form.
Despite the fundamental profundity and tender poignancy of her work, there is a subtle, self-aware amusement and wry observation that sporadically bubbles through. Man About Town demonstrates this, as does I Love Him More, and New Love is jaunty with humor albeit brushed with a touch of cynicism.
Drifting is a beautifully crafted, polished, and powerful volume, awash in sensuous rhythms and sparkling with emotive insight. Highly recommended.
*Click here for my review of Waves, the second book in Thomas’s Water Trilogy.
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Nice review, Rose. This certainly looks like a book worth checking out! :)