‘Claiming’ shows snappy style> Patricia Ranzoni’s poetry illuminates the life of a Maine woman

CLAIMING, poems by Patricia Ranzoni, Puckerbrush Press, Orono, 90 pages, $8.95.

In “Claiming,” Patricia Ranzoni’s first published collection of work, the Bucksport poet digs deep into her Maine roots to expose her backwoods — and often quite joyful — sense of history and self. From the portrait of a pioneer woman in the first poem, “In Their Dust,” to the musical notation of “Mamie’s Lullaby” that ends the book, Ranzoni takes the important step of looking back, not only into her own life but into the lives of many hard-living women, their men, their children, their barnyards and their secrets.

Some of the imagery of Ranzoni’s snappy style is fresh and unforgettable, as in “Swapping or Why I Love to Go Outback,” in which the narrator and her “old man” celebrate a newly erected shed by joyfully sharing a little outback-style lovemaking. The poem is only one sentence long, but it captures the ebullience of the moment — and throws in some strawberries to make it all the sweeter. Equally imagistic is “Tarpaper,” in which “chapped cheeked kids” peek from behind the destitution that is their home and teach a stinging lesson about judgment and the bare necessities of life.

Some of the imagery, however, suffers from predictability. Some of it is, at times, precious, overdone in its literary cleverness. But the regional voice is always strong, and Ranzoni doesn’t get stuck in sentimentality for too long.

The topics that interest Ranzoni cover a lot of territory and will interest a wide range of readers, even those who haven’t studied poetry. Her narrations move from a little girl who can’t wait for a pair of hand-me-down patent-leather shoes, to the stalls at the Blue Hill Fair and the effect of modernization on farm cats. She can be very funny, and very angry. Her single most pervasive theme, however, is that of the woman reflecting on the wilderness (or lack thereof) within her and around her.

The best thing about Ranzoni’s work is its fearlessness in presenting the poet as her own sort of natural woman — whether the narrator is watching a doe make its bed among daisies, or thinking about her mother’s way of life, or wondering about the way men and women get along.