This review first appeared in Verse Afire Spring 2025, we republish it here with author’s permission.
In her Foreword, illustrated by lunar cycles, Katherine Gordon describes the poems as reflecting “what being alive in this vast sea of life really means for each of us. … All of us fade into other star-fields, our words, art and music may remain, though it may be “after midnight” that they appear to us.”
After Midnight is a paean to light-illuminated darkness between the worlds, to all sentient beings, to mortality within eternity. Magic permeates every poem: owls harbinger earthly death, wolves populate dreams and wilderness calls to our souls. Moon and her light deepen our understanding of just being. Worm to firefly to raven, Beowulf to Pharaohs to heatwaves … offer ancient wisdom startlingly relevant today.
Gordon’s spiritual journey is cosmic, embracing: “The stars that lent us dust/ sing in our blood” (The Myth of Being), down to the lowly worm: “It is (the birds) time to feast/ yours to forfeit.” (Worm Moon). These panoramic poems encompass all of history: “where all history awaits” (Marooned) and time-lines “somewhere between The Crusades/ and the suburbs” (Love In-Between), there to teach us if we readers are receptive.
A heightened awareness of mortality and death shimmers through the poems, often heralded by Owl: “The messenger between worlds/ bringing abrupt death.” (What The Owl Says). Added to this foreboding is the climate crisis brought about by humanity’s failures: “no-mercy climate shift we all endure.” (To Comfort Starlings). To be true stewards of our planet, we need to understand that all are connected in a sacred weave: “when all things converge/ into light-auraed union/ before each must disperse into the dark.” (Midsummer Eve). Gordon’s gathered wisdom is a process of immersion in the natural world and what it needs to tell us, especially the birds: “they bring me spring far too early … unlike me they understand the light.” (To Open The Sky). Through mindful observation and study, Gordon’s poems search for the missing link that will bring her fully alive within the light.
Her search covers Strawberry and Wolf Moons, Beowulf, the lady Catherine Gordon, wildlife, mythology and mysticism, a journey too encyclopedic to do it justice in a singe review. Adamant that we re not “singular in creation”, Gordon states: “and I am a rusk of leaf, a hungering winter bird,/ knowing there is no certainty/ except the shift of season.” (Early Winter Rain). In darkness, through falcon and fairy, Beowulf to light-auraed union, Gordon chases the light from the depths of her being. Book-learning is not enough: “When I returned in winter-dark/ burdened with books/ heavy as thoughts, / you smiled at me … / and suddenly/ I understood the light.” We cannot think our way into transubstantiation or enlightenment. “Hawk carried the last poem/ through wind to Owl./ Owl swallowed the secrets that fly between light and dark” (Play Of Light). The lack of a period implies that we live on after death as beings of light: “the song is eternal.” (Cosmic Chorus).
These poems entice us as readers to ponder them until they live within and propel us into our own search for enlightened being. In the after section, Beautiful Encounters, Gordon leaves us with a challenge: “Will war be banished from our landscapes, / the harmony of nature/ replace our brutal husbandry? (Forget-Me-Nots). For life to continue vibrant and vivid, we must regain that elevated being which honours, serves and protects all creatures. The midnight hour has arrived; do we choose life or destruction?
Katerina Vaughan Fretwell’s 11th poetry collection, Familiar and Forgiveness (Ace of Swords), is forthcoming May 21, 2024. Her 10th, Holy in My Nature (Silver Bow, 2024), is now available. Her previous books include We Are Malala (Inanna, 2019) and Dancing on a Pin (Inanna, 2015), longlisted for the Lowther Prize. Her poetry has appeared in over 80 anthologies and 70 journals, including Prism International, Descant, Vallum, and The Pittsburgh Quarterly. A visual artist as well, her work has been exhibited internationally and featured on her book covers. Fretwell is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and several arts organizations. She lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with her Maine Coon cat Henry. Born in New York City in 1944, she became a Canadian citizen in 1970. She is a descendant of Welsh mystic poet Henry Vaughan.