Karen Lumley’s The Cabin Collection is a finely tuned body of work that deals with heavy subjects with a feather touch. Her poems bring us back through centuries to the very earth and clay from which she came, rooted in the land and nature that shaped the poet’s formative years.
Her writing works through the dynamics of an extraordinary family. Within the lines of the poems, there is loss and remembrance, truth and regret. The poignancy of Kitty Bell; “She died before I learned how to play Scrabble” and Grandma Berta; “I never asked her to show me how to knit” sits alongside the gratitude and awareness of the harshness of life on the prairie for women. Lumley is acutely aware of the effects of trauma on the human spirit; “The bruise wasn’t that big, It was just her daughter was small, She had been taller and bigger at that age.”
She leaves us with the poem Sunset and the magical image of the evening sun. “The setting sun a loom, The warp of pink against the weft of gold.”
Written partly in Ireland and partly in Canada The Cabin Collection is a testimonial to survival on one hand, and the poet’s ability to find power and connection in nature, weaving a beautiful story of love, loss, strength and above all, hope.
Anne McDonald
Award winning Irish poet and artist.
Author of poetry collection Crows’ Books
