May Swenson: A Poet’s Life in Photos by R. R. Knudson, Suzzanne Bigelow (review)

2 6 2 W A L 3 4 ( 2 ) SUMMER 1 9 9 9 indulgence in their self-exposure. The writing— its language and its con­ tent—often feels raw, almost awkward, definitely not polished. Yet these flaws flow directly into the collection’s greatest strength. It’s hard to avoid overblown sentiment when describing the variety and inten­ sity of pregnancy, labor, childrearing, and child loss. Each selection pulls its readers into the experiences and feelings of a real mother—and that is an important achievement. As Tessa Meyer Santiago makes clear in her essay “Mother’s Day,” confusion and discomfort, as well as real danger, result when our knowledge of mothers’ experiences is vague and insufficient. I panted along with the laboring character from Margaret Blair Young’s Salvador. With Julie Nichols and Dian Saderup, I felt the burden and relent­ lessness of caring for children. I felt part of the pain and loneliness of women who described losing, giving up, or never bearing their babies. An essay’s unrefined presentation often heightened the intensity of vicarious experi­ ence. The book’s sections—anticipating conception, pregnancy, delivery, child raising, and loss—mark the milestones of mothering and portray an appropriately varied array of ways of looking at, experiencing, and talking about motherhood. These Mormon women variously say the experience of mothering is like a birthday party, like a tutorial in Christian living, creepy and unreal, exhausting, erotic, exhilarating. Their descriptions never con­ geal into a unified portrait. My mood after reading this book was not entirely unlike my mood after giving birth: I was both energized and exhausted by the expanse of strong and simultaneous experiences and emotions. Mormonism has long praised and discussed motherhood. Yet neither Mormon sermons nor Mormon studies has yet sufficiently explored the real and varied lives of real, not ideal, mothers—of mothering, not motherhood. Collections such as this, even if unrefined and choppy, take giant steps in developing a study of Mormon women that is firmly grounded in the expe­ riences of those women. Here’s to the next step. May Swenson: A Poet’s Life in Photos. By R. R. Knudson and Suzzanne Bigelow. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996. 167 pages, $29.95. Reviewed by Roberta Stearman Utah State University May Swenson: A Poet’s Life in Photos will not only engage readers but also remind them that although Swenson spent most of her writing life on the East Coast, her origins, and often her heart, were grounded firmly in the West. In his foreword to the book, Richard Wilbur also affirms the influence of her western roots: “[her] poems are western . . . in their openness of tone and dic­ tion; even at their trickiest, they are made out of plain American words” (2). b o o k R e v i e w s 2 6 3 Swenson learned those words from parents who were Swedish immigrants, Mormon converts who quickly embraced the language and work ethic of the West and raised their ten children in a house that stood “one hundred yards from the campus” of Utah State Agricultural College, where her father taught woodworking (25). Swenson’s early years spent in Logan, Utah, are well doc­ umented by the text, by photos, and by reminiscences from siblings who knew their eldest sister more “as a storyteller than as a poet” (28). The authors also include friends’ and teachers’ memories from her adolescent and college years, all of whom note the special qualities of the young woman, whose poems would eventually grace the pages of prestigious magazines and journals, fill the eleven collections published during her lifetime, and gamer notable awards such as the Bolligen Prize and the MacArthur Fellowship. Although Swenson left the security of her caring family when she went east, her love and respect for her immigrant parents led to many of her best poems—“Feel Me,” “I Look at My Hand,” “That the Soul May Wax Plump”— some of which are published in the biography, which includes thirty-seven complete poems, several not published previously. Knudson and Bigelow also make a valuable contribution to Swenson scholarship by filling in many of those early New York...