Promising Voice(s)

Kruger, Haidee. 2007. lush: poems for four voices. Pretoria: Protea Book House. 64 p. Price: R100,00. ISBN: 978-1-86919-205-1. Haidee Kruger has published poems in several print and online journals over a number of years. Her debut volume, lush: poems for four voices, comprises a selection from these earlier publications as well as a number of previously unpublished poems. The striking cover shows nude female figures seated around a cross in varying postures typically assumed in prayer. A selection of these images, in black and white as opposed to the deep red, brown, and skin-tone colours used for the cover, is repeated inside the volume on the pages demarcating the sections for the different voices. The cross as central image on the cover together with the positions assumed by the figures suggest a spiritual element, and this is realised in several poems in images and descriptions associated with a religious or Biblical context. This spiritual element is, however, always grounded in, or filtered through the natural world and human experiences or emotions. Compare for instance lines such as We lift our palms to the sky, our fingertips / a supplication for blessing, for the supple saliva / of sun and wind and water ... (Agnes, one) and so long immersed / in holy water our / electric blue limb to / limb radioactive / rosary of atoms tierce like / saints on fire yes--/ the arch / of your back my / oh holy grail only / to be resurrected to half-life (Dorothy, one). Another significant feature of the cover design is the variation in postures assumed by the figures. The variations suggest dramatic movement and change, perhaps of a cyclic nature, since the figures are positioned in a circle. The dramatic quality of the cover design is echoed in the subtitle by the qualification for four voices with its connotations of performance, while the themes of change, movement, transformation, or the inability to do so, are central to the volume as a whole. In the Collins English Dictionary appears twice as headword In the first entry, which concerns the adjectival form of the word, the following definition and etymology is given: 1. (of vegetation) abounding in lavish growth. 2. (esp. of fruits succulent and fleshy. 3. luxurious, elaborate, or opulent. [C15 probably from Old French lasche lax, lazy, from Latin laxus loose; perhaps related to Old English loec, Old Norse lakr weak, German lasch loose]. The information given for the second entry, reads: Slang. -n. 1. Chiefly U.S. and Canadian. a heavy drinker, esp. an alcoholic. 2. U.S. and Canadian. alcoholic drink. -vb. 3. U.S. and Canadian. to drink (alcohol) to excess. [C19: origin unknown]. What is of interest in these definitions is that although lush primarily describes qualities of natural phenomena such as vegetation or fruits, its etymological roots lie in words describing human nature or behaviour such as lax, lazy, loose and weak. …

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