Hansen, Vivian M

English

Scholars Commons

The Goose
Volume 15 | No. 2 Article 13
2-14-2017
Niche by Basma Kavanagh
Vivian M. Hansen
University of Calgary
Part of the Biodiversity Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Literature in
English, North America Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Nature and Society Relations
Commons, Other Life Sciences Commons, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Poetry Commons, and the Zoology Commons
Follow this and additional works at / Suivez-nous ainsi que d’autres travaux et œuvres:
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This article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Goose by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Cet article vous est accessible gratuitement et en libre accès grâce à Scholars Commons @ Laurier. Le texte a été approuvé pour faire partie intégrante
de la revue The Goose par un rédacteur autorisé de Scholars Commons @ Laurier. Pour de plus amples informations, contactez
scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation / Citation recommandée
Hansen, Vivian M.. "Niche by Basma Kavanagh." The Goose, vol. 15 , no. 2 , article 13, 2017,
https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol15/iss2/13.
Catching more than a Glimpse: a review of 
Niche 
 
Niche by BASMA KAVANAGH 
Frontenac House Press, 2016 $15.95 
 
Reviewed by VIVIAN HANSEN 
 
This collection of haunting poems entreats 
the environmental eye to revision  the 
natural world. This revisioning is contained 
in poems that point cross-hairs at the 
scientific method, artifact collections, and 
the sense of appropriation that we pull into 
place when exploring wilderness. In “How 
to Catch a Glimpse,” Kavanagh 
defamiliarizes the concept of the science 
project:   
 
 Glimpses are shy and secretive. 
 They are also very small, and 
 generally only active (seasonally) 
 at dawn and dusk. For these 
 reasons, glimpses can be very 
 hard to catch. However, with 
 practiced dedication, and proper 
 tools, it is possible to collect and 
 learn more about these delicate 
 and elusive creatures….What 
 you will need: a sweeping net/an 
 umbrella/a beating cloth/glass-
 bottomed pill-boxes 
 ….lantern/sugaring 
 mixture/funnel/collecting bag. 
 (49) 
 
I use the word haunting because the sense 
of the collection has emerged from what 
any of us think we know about science and 
the natural world. The haunting of nature 
also includes one’s experiences in catching 
a glimpse of something rare and olfactory 
meanings that are conjured in the 
memories of a wild child. These are primal 
sites where Kavanagh goes to play with her 
revisions. The book contains eleven images 
of artifacts pulled from the photographic 
trays of a dusty museum and one of a man 
trying to catch butterflies. This display is 
unusual for a poetry book but allows us to 
peruse an old familiar framework of “other” 
in a fusion of language and vision.   
 The book uses a subtle, but 
demanding second person voice as a hailing 
frequency to readers and wilderness 
observers. In “Red Knot Dreamer” you 
become blissfully “other:”  
 
 Your chest hurts and you feel 
 hungry. Winds sweep over your 
 speckled heart, perched on its 
 rocky ledge. Waves scour your 
 heart.  Every morning you walk 
 your little cove. (53)   
 
In “Two Sighs for Sale,” the sense of living in 
the wilderness past becomes salient for 
what can never be again:  
 
 The first is nearly one hundred and 
 forty years old…Sigh is in original 
 cobalt container, stopper showing 
 some discoloration, sign itself has 
 deteriorated slightly. Asking one 
 hundred dollars. (54) 
 
 A hard but necessary observation 
from the poet is her innate knowledge that 
“[t]here are things in there we didn’t know 
were missing” (59). Like a scientist, she can 
only examine the empirical evidence of 
what is before her and know that 
something is missing, and continues to miss, 
the human eye:  
 
 It is very hard to see, so hard to 
 keep a tally, like keeping track of 
 your senses while falling. Everything 
1
Hansen: Niche by Basma Kavanagh
Published by / Publié par Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2017
 drifts in and out of focus, in and out 
 of earshot, or comprehension – 
 jumbled, whispery, feverish. (59)      
 
Kavanagh conjures the full range of poetic 
sensibility to call attention to glimpses and 
ghosts of a  world falling into extinction. In 
“Blanding’s Turtle,” the anthropomorphic 
touch, which is no longer in eco-sensibility 
vogue, still manages to invoke sympathies 
and fuse boundaries between human and 
animal:   
 
 When the scent of evening changes, 
 and the cool air carries its tinge of 
 leaves turning, the lilt of cricketsong, 
 a hum of overripe berries, we tilt 
 towards that place. We amble easily 
 northwest, back from small ponds 
 and wet ditches, the bogs and ferns, 
 the logs and long rocks where we 
 sunned ourselves all summer. (69)  
 
 The poetic swerve in Niche is the 
setup of compare/contrast discourse. This 
style supports the collection of poems as 
essay.  Each lyrical surprise is one that 
catches a primal memory and releases it 
into collective perception. In "Self-Loathing: 
a dissection,” we are permitted an Asimov-
like view into the soft tissue of human form:   
 
 Take note of the severely shrunken 
 myth organs, the atrophied animal-
 language lobe. Notice the over-
 abundance of doubt in the brain 
 tissue, the extreme viscosity of 
 loneliness coating the meninges. 
 (82)   
 
To be offered such an exposé drives one 
into the effort of how to reconstitute the 
animal-language cerebral lobe. Kavanagh 
offers us a remedy:  
 
 Spend time listening / in a language 
 you don’t speak, river otter, 
 nuthatch, boblink. Keep / your eyes 
 and ears peeled. / Peel a green alder 
 branch, or a hazel.  Witch water, 
 walk without a map, do what the 
 land tells you. (89) 
 
 Citations describing what is lost are 
a ghostly, veiled sadness in this book. 
Kavanagh expresses the sadness and the 
eco-warrior dynamic in this marvelous 
collection. This is no small feat, and permits 
us a space to explicate what we think we 
know about extinction of species, including 
our own. In the final poem sequence of the 
book’s title Niche, Kavanagh focuses on 
recovery and renewal. “Inhale your enemy’s 
suffering.  Inhale your friend’s. Transform 
the weight of the world with your breath” 
(97). In the perfect act of living in a dying 
world, we can still catch glimpses.   
 
VIVIAN HANSEN is a Calgary poet and 
creative nonfiction writer.
 
 
 
 
2
The Goose, Vol. 15, No. 2 [2017], Art. 13
https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol15/iss2/13


Niche by Basma Kavanagh

Wilfrid Laurier University

The GooseVolume 15 | No. 2 Article 132-14-2017Niche by Basma KavanaghVivian M. HansenUniversity of CalgaryPart of the Biodiversity Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Literature inEnglish, North America Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Nature and Society RelationsCommons, Other Life Sciences Commons, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental HealthCommons, Place and Environment Commons, Poetry Commons, and the Zoology CommonsFollow this and additional works at / Suivez-nous ainsi que d’autres travaux et œuvres:https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegooseThis article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Goose by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Cet article vous est accessible gratuitement et en libre accès grâce à Scholars Commons @ Laurier. Le texte a été approuvé pour faire partie intégrantede la revue The Goose par un rédacteur autorisé de Scholars Commons @ Laurier. Pour de plus amples informations, contactezscholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended Citation / Citation recommandéeHansen, Vivian M.. "Niche by Basma Kavanagh." The Goose, vol. 15 , no. 2 , article 13, 2017,https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol15/iss2/13.Catching more than a Glimpse: a review of Niche  Niche by BASMA KAVANAGH Frontenac House Press, 2016 $15.95  Reviewed by VIVIAN HANSEN  This collection of haunting poems entreats the environmental eye to revision  the natural world. This revisioning is contained in poems that point cross-hairs at the scientific method, artifact collections, and the sense of appropriation that we pull into place when exploring wilderness. In “How to Catch a Glimpse,” Kavanagh defamiliarizes the concept of the science project:     Glimpses are shy and secretive.  They are also very small, and  generally only active (seasonally)  at dawn and dusk. For these  reasons, glimpses can be very  hard to catch. However, with  practiced dedication, and proper  tools, it is possible to collect and  learn more about these delicate  and elusive creatures….What  you will need: a sweeping net/an  umbrella/a beating cloth/glass- bottomed pill-boxes  ….lantern/sugaring  mixture/funnel/collecting bag.  (49)  I use the word haunting because the sense of the collection has emerged from what any of us think we know about science and the natural world. The haunting of nature also includes one’s experiences in catching a glimpse of something rare and olfactory meanings that are conjured in the memories of a wild child. These are primal sites where Kavanagh goes to play with her revisions. The book contains eleven images of artifacts pulled from the photographic trays of a dusty museum and one of a man trying to catch butterflies. This display is unusual for a poetry book but allows us to peruse an old familiar framework of “other” in a fusion of language and vision.    The book uses a subtle, but demanding second person voice as a hailing frequency to readers and wilderness observers. In “Red Knot Dreamer” you become blissfully “other:”    Your chest hurts and you feel  hungry. Winds sweep over your  speckled heart, perched on its  rocky ledge. Waves scour your  heart.  Every morning you walk  your little cove. (53)    In “Two Sighs for Sale,” the sense of living in the wilderness past becomes salient for what can never be again:    The first is nearly one hundred and  forty years old…Sigh is in original  cobalt container, stopper showing  some discoloration, sign itself has  deteriorated slightly. Asking one  hundred dollars. (54)   A hard but necessary observation from the poet is her innate knowledge that “[t]here are things in there we didn’t know were missing” (59). Like a scientist, she can only examine the empirical evidence of what is before her and know that something is missing, and continues to miss, the human eye:    It is very hard to see, so hard to  keep a tally, like keeping track of  your senses while falling. Everything 1Hansen: Niche by Basma KavanaghPublished by / Publié par Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2017 drifts in and out of focus, in and out  of earshot, or comprehension –  jumbled, whispery, feverish. (59)       Kavanagh conjures the full range of poetic sensibility to call attention to glimpses and ghosts of a  world falling into extinction. In “Blanding’s Turtle,” the anthropomorphic touch, which is no longer in eco-sensibility vogue, still manages to invoke sympathies and fuse boundaries between human and animal:     When the scent of evening changes,  and the cool air carries its tinge of  leaves turning, the lilt of cricketsong,  a hum of overripe berries, we tilt  towards that place. We amble easily  northwest, back from small ponds  and wet ditches, the bogs and ferns,  the logs and long rocks where we  sunned ourselves all summer. (69)    The poetic swerve in Niche is the setup of compare/contrast discourse. This style supports the collection of poems as essay.  Each lyrical surprise is one that catches a primal memory and releases it into collective perception. In "Self-Loathing: a dissection,” we are permitted an Asimov-like view into the soft tissue of human form:     Take note of the severely shrunken  myth organs, the atrophied animal- language lobe. Notice the over- abundance of doubt in the brain  tissue, the extreme viscosity of  loneliness coating the meninges.  (82)    To be offered such an exposé drives one into the effort of how to reconstitute the animal-language cerebral lobe. Kavanagh offers us a remedy:    Spend time listening / in a language  you don’t speak, river otter,  nuthatch, boblink. Keep / your eyes  and ears peeled. / Peel a green alder  branch, or a hazel.  Witch water,  walk without a map, do what the  land tells you. (89)   Citations describing what is lost are a ghostly, veiled sadness in this book. Kavanagh expresses the sadness and the eco-warrior dynamic in this marvelous collection. This is no small feat, and permits us a space to explicate what we think we know about extinction of species, including our own. In the final poem sequence of the book’s title Niche, Kavanagh focuses on recovery and renewal. “Inhale your enemy’s suffering.  Inhale your friend’s. Transform the weight of the world with your breath” (97). In the perfect act of living in a dying world, we can still catch glimpses.    VIVIAN HANSEN is a Calgary poet and creative nonfiction writer.    2The Goose, Vol. 15, No. 2 [2017], Art. 13https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol15/iss2/13

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1325&amp;context=thegoose

Niche by Basma Kavanagh

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