Pearl
By Lawrence Kessenich
Letterpress Book Publishing, $18.00
Review by Mignon Ariel King
To begin with, the physical book
itself--a hand-stitched, limited-edition poetry chapbook--evokes
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the story of
Hester Prynne the seamstress. “Pearl” is the daughter produced
from Hester Prynne’s adulterous love affair with her Puritan
settlement’s hypocritical Minister Arthur Dimmesdale. Pearl’s
birth lands her mother in prison in addition to being shamed in the
town square. Kessenich re-imagines Pearl, now an adult, and
furnishes her with narratives reflecting on her beloved mother and
scorned father.
Hester’s passion is channeled in
Pearl’s first poem, first line: “They scoff when I claim to
remember it...but I swear.../I can feel...the wild embroidered letter
on my face” (1). Pearl is proud of the fiery spirit that fought
tauntings of other children against her sinful lineage; however, she
also expresses the freedom of imagination and joy of love resulting
from her ostracism. “The scarlet letter set me apart, saved me
from the stifling/cloak of conformity…” (1).
Pearl asserts that her biological
father obviously failed her by refusing to publicly acknowledge the
paternity. But, in an interesting turn, Kessenich’s Pearl also
berates her mother’s husband, Chillingworth, who could have chosen
to become Pearl’s father, to raise her as his own. Instead,
Chillingworth expended only negative energy, emotionally torturing
Dimmesdale until his death. Had he used his energy in a positive
fashion, Chillingworth, a “Kindred Spirit,” might have seen:
“Like me, he had wildness in him…” (3); and he was “dressed
like me, too colorfully” (3). Pearl’s daughterly love “could
have saved/his wretched life…” (3).
There are poems sprinkled through the
collection in Hawthorne’s voice. These “Interludes” sharpen the
setting. Pearl’s voice is modernized in comparison, as one might
expect from the now-adult Pearl, a successful London playwright. (5)
Single, she is kept company by the stage characters she creates.
“Born into drama...how could I not/ become a playwright?” (7).
Having grown up with a creative mother who read her the Bible; taught
her mythology via the names of constellations; made the forest her
playground; and longed for her faithless father’s company, Pearl
believes that writing, the world of imagination, is her “Destiny.”
Pearl discusses her bachelor-woman life
briefly: “Beauty and boldness are my blessing and curse”; men
“wilt in the fire of my spirit” (10). Half of this collection
focuses on Pearl’s “Solitude” and discordant “Inheritance,”
i.e. mainstream society’s judgmental “Silence.” Yet,
Kessenich gives his Pearl “Redemption.” She “grew up
indifferent/to the judgment of men” (21), but she has an unusual
community of Quaker women who tolerate her blazing nonconformity in
that they pass many hours in reverent silence, “waiting for
God to speak...or move them to speak” (19). After all, Pearl
cannot bear to waste words, not even one letter.
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