Among the Untamed by dee Hobsbawn-Smith

dee Hobsbawn-Smith, Saskatchewan’s current poet laureate, and author of Among the Untamed, bleeds through this collection. By that, I mean her poems are raw and gritty and embodied. I mean they are dense and full of striking imagery that linger. I mean the poet seems to leave herself on the page, gutted and writhing, but eventually finding her step into tempered hopefulness—or at least acceptance—buoyed by the women and creatives she surrounds herself with.

Women are the bedrock of this collection—young women coming of age, women in mid-life learning how to be old, and old women reveling in earned wisdom. The pages are riddled with questions: how do women relate to other women? To men (and vice versa)? Here, anger pulses beneath the surface, though the collection isn’t propelled by it. Poems like “Quotidian, female” brims with sobering reminders of the violence inflicted on “too many” women across the globe. While other poems, like “Shared Mason jars” (a particular favourite I found myself coming back to time and again) expresses the life-giving gift that women-friends offer. The Jeanne Dark poems oversee it all, giving commentary, asking “What does it mean to be a girl?” or exploring “what kind of woman [she] might be.”  

Food, too, has a large role in the collection, tempering the simmering rage with a ripening promise. The poet interjects these images like a balm, championing how a meal might translate love, offer pleasure, teach sweetness. Flavour wafts off the page.

But my favourite part is near the end in “Jeanne Dark comes of age on the prairie,” when the poet uses lines written by other poets to kickstart her own lyrical responses. It is a creative collaboration that softens earlier edges and champions the female experience. It is wholly satisfying to read.

Among the Untamed is a collection from a gifted author who is writing at her best. It is unrestrained and, as the title aptly conveys, untamed. A recommended read.

My thanks to the author for inviting me to read and review.

Among the Untamed dee Hobsbawn-Smith Frontenac House Poetry, 2023, pp. 67 ISBN: 978-1-989466-46-9