Review: My Not-So “Thimble”-Minded Take on Vanessa Shield’s Thimbles
When I was younger, I used to be heavily immersed in the English and French poetic traditions. In more recent years, I’ve become much more familiar with ancient Aramaic, Greek, and Hebrew poetics, which thrive by a completely different set(s) of traditional rhythmic and compositional rules. I was delighted recently to rediscover my love of western poetry in Thimbles (Palimpsest Press 2021).
Vanessa Shields’ Thimbles. To learn more about Shields’ work, please see: https://vanessashields.com/
Thimbles is a carefully crafted set of poetic memories by Vanessa Shields, editor, writer, teacher, and owner of Gertrude’s Writing Room & Editing Services. The memories span from both Vanessa’s own memories of her Nonna, Maria, as well as Maria’s own recollections (as passed down by Vanessa). Thematically, the poems are centered around Maria, who began as a seamstress in Italy, her life, love and struggles, to her death. In this way, Shields’ collection of poems serves not just to craft beautifully curated thoughts and words about Maria, but to present a life story about her.
There’s much depth of thought and emotion to this book. The work’s poetic style is finely crafted and transforms simple words into a tapestry of meaning that’s highly accented by a careful consideration of style and detail. You can certainly tell that each word and even formatting decision were made with the utmost care and attention to detail. Careful attention to Shields’ detection of word choice, punctuation and formatting allow the reader to understand the meaning behind each word choice, as well as the omission of potential synonyms.
In terms of story, the book is gut wrenching, recounting the tale of Maria who began as a young seamstress in Bassano Del Grappa, Italy. Hints of tragic loss in Maria’s life (p. 13) leave one imagining both what has been said and left unsaid regarding her background. It also leads to interesting textual questions regarding where the omissions stem from the author (Shields) herself or from gaps in her grandmother’s recollections (recall the focus on Maria’s dementia later in the text). We learn about Maria’s educational experiences, which serve to open up a window into the past, granting us permission to imagine another time, another place. What particularly impressed me in this collection was how Shields successfully ties in her poems’ titles into the story itself, as in for e.g. “she remembers the past” which recounts Maria’s arrival in Canada and early life in the country. Later in the book, Shields recounts her own personal experiences with her grandmother, which have a remarkable air of childhood nostalgia that are likely to invoke memories of one’s own grandparents for many readers.
Thematically, the book, as noted above, is nostalgic and draws attention to the brevity and precarity of life. The effect of walking us through one’s life with lively verse to finally end with an account of Maria’s mental deterioration due to dementia is nothing short of tragic. While the individual poems (especially those earlier parts of the book) provide one with a sense of excitement, optimism and hope for Maria’s life and growth, the reader soon develops a sense of the diachronic nature of the book, which serves to foreshadow Maria’s tragic death.
Reading this collection of poems, one gets the sense of having access to a brilliantly layered memoir that is equal parts commemorative in its details, as it is crafted in artistic flourish. While you can read through the book relatively quickly (it’s a short read), I’d recommend savoring each poem and allowing yourself the time to recognize and reflect on how each poem has been carefully stitched together into a broader account. If you’re a poetry fan, you should definitely pick this one up!
Until next time!