Pierson’s Recollections of the Real in Aide-Mémoire

By Siona Drummond

Aide-Mémoire is a series of poems that moves from era to era, encompassing history, love, youth, ageing and a sense of loss, as well as joy. Experiences that were good, great even, bad and some that are not understood. The book’s title suggests we are entering a memorandum, a notebook of recollections.

I am old enough to know who Myrna Loy was and I have seen a peignoir. I wonder if this reference is lost on those 20-, even 30-, somethings, as with the other references to the past; to the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

“Glass Equus: Elegy” (34) contains direct references to Ernst Lubitsch and Frank Capra, two of the greatest directors of the 20th century, to a “crystal horse flanked by frosted Lalique stalagmites” (glassworks worth in the tens of thousands today), and to Irish-born British author and philosopher Iris Murdoch, best known for her novels about sexual relationships, morality and the power of the unconscious. Can someone under 30 read this poem and others in the book and relate to them without having to Google?

In “Soda Pop Sisters of the Sock Hop” (31), we imagine scenes from the movie classic American Graffiti, pencil-straight skirts with Maidenform bras under tight cashmere sweaters. Women now in their 70s, longing to dance again at the sock hop. We know their names: “Nancy, / Grace, Liz Barb, / Donna, two Carols, Ruth and Ann.” Are you not curious to know more about them? I wonder what they were like. Are they still friends today?

In a number of Pierson’s poems we hear about the speaker’s husband, jilted and now deceased, and encounter references to his picture hanging, framed, in the university library. A visit with his widow brings out memories; memories the couple shared before she betrayed him. I wonder what exactly the poem’s narrator did. Could it have been that one night in a New York hotel room mentioned in “Conversations with Other Women” (45)?

In “Eyes Wide Open” (15), a former boyfriend tracks the speaker down “after four decades” without contact. I wonder if this is an encounter of the facebook kind. They were younger, much younger, when they saw each other last. In the poem’s present, he asks her to remove her glasses, she obliges, "my eyes no longer wide-eyed / and silky brown." She feels violated. As a women approaching a mid-life milestone, I too can relate to my changing appearance; when old boyfriends ask to be my friend on facebook, I quickly click the IGNORE button.

Death is lurking throughout the book and I wonder if mortality is something on Ruth Pierson's mind at this time in her life; I wonder if she is at peace with the fact that death will come one day.

In “Railway Siding” (21), Pierson brings up women’s socialized fear of ageing. The fear of no longer being visible anymore because we are no longer considered beautiful, our youth diminished, our lives stolen and without meaning.

In “No Right of Entry” (57), we see the cabin where the narrator frolicked as a little girl, now in ruins. Old and left to die. A skeleton of childhood memories.

In “Endings,” the narrator’s father is “found lurking confused on the stairs / to the basement of the Volunteer Park Museum, / sheepish as a three-year -old runaway / too far from home” (58). His end is drawing near. We hear about the “frazzled end” of a century, the end of the line, the end of life.

In “A Little Life” (49), there is a jumper at Toronto’s Ossington subway station, a confirmation that death is all around, not just an idea, but reality. Further in the poem, as the speaker’s friend lay dying from melanoma, he’d whispered "Live a little life for me” (50). Why does it take someone on the brink of death to wake us up to the idea that life is precious and that growing old is a gift that should be cherished?

There are many references to places around the world. In “Insignia” (18), reflecting that Pierson lived in post-war Germany as a teenager, the narrator observes a country riddled with guilt and confusion. Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a text written by Adolf Hitler in 1925 outlining his political ideologies, was once in every respecting German household but by now, in the 1950s, could no longer be found. References to Italy, Canada and the U.S are all present; places where the author’s own life has happened. Brushes with death, love and ageing all have occurred leaving wonderful memories that keep one toe in the past, yet allow the author and us to move forward and experience new adventures, have new reflections and break the seal that binds us to invisibility as we grow older.

My experience of this book brings forth some of the personal agony I feel about ageing, yet also empowers me to go forth and conquer all the things I want to achieve before I die. A bucket list if you wish. I felt invisible in my 30s, raising my children, and now, as I approach another milestone, I am all about being a person again. Longing to be visible, to be real in the world.

Afternote

I had the pleasure of reading Aide-Mémoire, by Ruth Roach Pierson, as one of eight Canadian poets featured in the programme Influency 8: A Toronto Poetry Salon. I was immediately engaged with the captivating imagery projected in Ruth's writing. Aide-Mémoire allowed me to experience her pains, her joys and her life. This book deserves a second read, whereby new thoughts and experiences will surely come to light.