Literary / Arts
Genine Hanns, A Retrospective Journey – 2009-2015
Adriana Mooney, Bridgeport, BC
Volume 30 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: April 5, 2016
We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.
– Sheryl Sandberg
This quote best describes the journey of Genine Hanns throughout the birth of her five consecutive volumes over these subsequent years. What struck me most in her first 72-page poetry book, Cross-Eyed Virgin on a Tightrope, published by Desert Phoenix Press in the summer 2009 with whimsical cover art by Ken Horn, was her unique talent for character development.
We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.
– Sheryl Sandberg
This quote best describes the journey of Genine Hanns throughout the birth of her five consecutive volumes over these subsequent years. What struck me most in her first 72-page poetry book, Cross-Eyed Virgin on a Tightrope, published by Desert Phoenix Press in the summer 2009 with whimsical cover art by Ken Horn, was her unique talent for character development.
In the second section lies a persona for every situation in the travelling Red Star carnival milieu; these people are real and entertaining and a novel could easily be written on what they encounter on their American tour. In “Carnival Man” with drug addiction the prevalent theme, she writes: “He holds tickets to paradise/ in a sewer outlet to the Rio Grande.” This is an example of her original and far reaching imagery.
Backtracking to the first section, Seed Rattles its Pod, the poems launch themselves from humour into love and curdle into dark tragedy with a knife-edge twist that walks the tightrope of the mind. In the T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath-like “The Mad Girl Sings of Love,” this mental tension is evident with “A rat’s panic sizzles in my brain,” as well as the uneasy knowledge of predatory human nature when her physician announces: “You are human after all/ for nobody has taken too much blood.” Her unique and powerful images come from a deep, uncluttered truthfulness.
Ekstasis Editions published her second 100-page poetry book, illustrated with her own artwork, in the autumn of 2009. Her editor, Carol Ann Sokoloff, describes the book best through her words on the back cover: “In The Language of Water, Genine Hanns explores women’s relationships with self, others and the world through myth, love, language, poetry and its forms, song and dance, freedom and captivity, creatures of the sea, land and sky, parents, marriage, issues of childbirth, divorce, isolation, celebration and aging.
The poet dips her pen in the deep waters of female creativity and gives voice to a siren’s aria and mermaid’s lament.” In this book the flow of words, both tactile and sensory, creates the metaphoric and fluid movement of water. Her deepest and most poignant piece is “More Than an Abortion Poem,” appearing first in ROCKSALT, the 2008 BC anthology by Mother Tongue Publishing.
The lines “and eyes, innocent as Eve’s and delicate as/bone china, the pale blue of unspeakable /sorrow saying: “Let me in. Let me in.” have rhythmic cadence. There is music in her words, along with “thoughts that…lie too deep for tears.”
I also liked “The Swan from Lake Budi,” written in memory of Pablo Neruda, a great lover of birds. Genine describes Neruda and the swan as having “… one language, one spirit before the ages/began the fire, the archipelagos of ice.” Again, her imagery reaches deep with a wonderful internal musical rhyme.
Innocent Origins of Sorrow, her first 290-page novel, published by Euphony Editions in the spring of 2012, is the initial book in her Bridgeport trilogy. The central metaphor is the story of Adam and Eve, found in the book of Genesis.
Largely philosophical and spiritual in nature, with a yeibecheis or salamander familiar initiator, the novel describes the journey of Janis Lange, a divorced welfare mother, eager to break out of bondage from a system both degrading and guilt-inducing and live by her own talents.
Along the way she discovers a mentor in the form of journalist, Robert Shatler. Both Janis and her small son, Shawn, are harassed and stalked by a love rival, Lynda Evans while Janis endeavours to free herself from emotional abuses of all kinds. Her journey ends successfully, but Janis must first deal with the suicide of her young friend, David Milgrove, who is addicted to Ecstasy and come to terms with her growth dreams, both fantastic and horrific.
Her third 85-page poetry book, Sacred Journeys, published by Euphony Editions in the spring of 2013, is highly spiritual. The plaintive dedication, written by her granddaughter, Jessica Saunders honours her son Jayden who died at six weeks of age of SIDS.
One can clearly visualize the angelic rainbow spectrum in her rich, colourful language and hear the music of the heavenly spheres in the rhythm of her lines. Many of the poems were published by the late Owen Rose, owner of the Angels of Avalon store in Market Square; they appeared regularly on his website.
She has also published a number of these poems abroad in the British Isles, Egypt, also in Canada and the United States. The cover is crowned with her delicate and sensitive artwork and within the pages one can find a poem for every angel imaginable with themes of love – humans, animals and nature as well as loss, death and rebirth of spirit.
I have a cat myself so my favourite piece “Habits,” written for her late Calico cat, Tabitha include the outstanding intelligent lines that describe angels as: “the little nuns of the day come running/heads bent, wings to the wind/on wind blown nights/…are swept up to the stars.”
Sleeping with Muses, her fourth book of poetry, published in the spring of this year by Euphony Editions was reviewed within these pages in the summer edition of ICN but I want to say a few words about her upcoming books that will be completed in the summer of 2016 – the remaining two trilogy novels.
The first, Armadillo Café is the initial journey of the legendary rock band, White Leopard, in their ultimate climb to fame. Largely philosophical, it is a social commentary on our times, dealing with such important themes as love, sex, humour, music, photography, gossip, drug addiction, suicide, rape, terminal illness, AIDS and vigilante justice.
Lovejuice, the band’s arrival into fame, deals with art, music, domestic abuse, food addiction, gossip, stalking and abduction, love, humour, and the addiction to fame itself. The armadillo totem ties both novels together and Genine tells me she has had great fun creating nightclub ambiance, inventing psychological complexes for some of her characters and writing rock songs.
I asked Genine what she plans to write after the completion of these novels. A poetry book on the life of Isadora Duncan, the founder of modern dance and whom she believes, according to Greek Mythology, is the eleventh muse after Sappho, is her goal. It’s abundantly clear to me the prolific progress train of Genine Hanns’ writing is still on the fast track.
Her contact information for books is: www.wix.com/gkhanns
Adriana Mooney is a writer and photographer living in Bridgeport, B.C.
Adriana Mooney, Bridgeport, BC