Bill Garvey’s The Basement on Biella, is a striking, and plain-spoken collection of moments and memories from the very first poem, “Around the Room” where readers witness a moment where a daughter provides palliative care for her father.
The blend of reality and beauty in this moment is perfect. Death awaits all of us, but it needn’t be unnecessarily cruel or horrifying; there is love and life, and the memory of love and life, all in this one moment.
It was very tempting for me, after reading the first poem, to dive into the rest of the book as if it were a bag of potato chips, but a slower and more careful read is called for. Each poem is a moment and a gift, a piece of Garvey’s life shared.
I especially related to Garvey’s obvious love of his grandfather. In “Kahlil”, he shares a moment of laughter, a “don’t tell mum and dad” moment, and then sees his grandfather transported back to Beirut in a moment of smoky relaxation and joy.
In “Shukran”, the reader is treated, via the memory of scent, to a bowl of Garvey’s grandfather’s lentil soup, and a moment at a café in the Beirut of the imagination. Scent is one of our strongest triggers for memory, so to read this was to be not only at that café in Beirut but also at my Gramma’s kitchen table, smelling pot roast and freshly made Rice Krispie squares.
It’s tempting to go through every single poem here, and list all the things that delighted me about them (and I absolutely could, I enjoyed everything I read), but perhaps a short list of temptations for readers new to this collection might be more useful:
Fleecing customers a dollar at a time at a gas station; a mundane moment at a Burger King that anyone can relate to; yet more gas station shenanigans; the strange relief of being fired (and the horror of finding a new job that makes you wonder if you actually left the old one at all); and, seeing the person and their beauty within the mental health diagnosis because we are so much more than the labels other people put on us.
This collection is a beautiful read, and one I expect to return to again and again.
Bill Garvey is a dual citizen of the USA and Canada. He grew up in Western Massachusetts and has lived in lots of places.
- Publisher : DarkWinter Press (Aug. 24 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 88 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1739042522
- ISBN-13 : 978-1739042523
Mara McTavish hails from Kjipuktuk, Miꞌkmaꞌki (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and is a writer of poems, short stories, and sometimes technical things; she’s also an avid knitter, reader, and drawer of snarky little stick people comics. You can follow her on Instagram @mara.e.mctavish. (www.instagram.com/mara.e.mctavish/)
- Mara McTavishhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/renee-mctavish/
- Mara McTavishhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/renee-mctavish/
- Mara McTavishhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/renee-mctavish/
