Auscultation

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Cyfrol o gerddi gafaelgar ac eglur, yn arddangos ymwybyddiaeth y bardd Isle Pedler o'r angen i wrando, boed anifail neu aelod o'r hil ddynol. Mae'r bardd yn tynnu ar ei phrofiad yn filfeddyg, yn fam ac yn llysfam i addurno ei cherddi.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

Auscultation is the act of listening, particularly to body sounds. In Pedler's case, a career as a veterinary surgeon has given her insight into human and animal relations. Experience as a mother and stepmother, a deep concern with listening and being heard as well as a vocation to caring, illuminate these beautifully clear and gripping poems.

Dosbarthu

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Dispatch

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Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Ilse Pedler has had poems published in several journals and anthologies. The Dogs That Chase Bicycle Wheels won the 2015 Mslexia Pamphlet competition. She was shortlisted in the National Poetry Competition in 2018, is the poet in residence at Sidmouth Folk Festival and works as a veterinary surgeon in Kendal.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

In psychology there’s a theory about ‘left-brain/right-brain’ people – the idea that the functions of one side of the brain typically dominate and that this dictates personality and traits. Right-brained people are typically categorised as free-spirited, compassionate and creative, with left-brained people being analytical and logical. While there may be some evidence suggesting elements of truth in this, this myth feeds into the commonly understood dichotomy that people tend to have a natural bent towards either the arts or science – rarely the two together. As such, veterinarian poet Ilse Pedler is a cultural rarity. The poetry of medicine is not a literary category you’d find on a bookshop shelf or see recognised to the extent of nature poetry, for example. To see both a stethoscope and a butterfly on the cover of Auscultation , Pedler’s first full-length collection, really sets out what’s to come: science, cold fact, but also nature, fragility and vulnerability. Auscultation, as we’re told on the opening pages, is the act of listening. Specifically to the sound of internal organs in medicine as a means of aiding diagnosis. Listening, as you’d expect, is a recurring theme throughout this collection. ‘Visit to the Vets’ has the repetition of ‘I’m listening when...’, and goes through a detailed list of times when the protagonist is listening as a vet: ‘I’m listening when you say I can’t put my finger on what’s wrong. I’m listening when you say but I know he’s just not right. I’m listening when you say you've looked it up on the internet.’ Insights into life as a vet continue with subjects rarely covered in the form of poetry: learning how to put an animal down in ‘Teach Me to Kill’; a dairy cow calving in ‘The Importance of Air’, and the unique relationship between a vet and a farmer in ‘Ploughing’ and ‘A Smaller Man’. Pedler has a real talent for opening up these unique experiences, typically closed to laymen, and explaining them in beautiful and understated ways. Where Pedler really comes into her own is when she lets her work take a back seat and shares her own life beyond the confines of the professional. Her insights into her childhood and family are touching and relatable – most notably in ‘Unmade’, a poem in which she talks about where she comes from. Not in geographical terms, but in terms of the traits and qualities of those she grew up around. ‘I come from a place of coral lipstick, where diet sheets were stuck on fridge doors and eyebrows were drawn on in pencil each morning.’ Where this collection is at its most powerful, however, is when Pedler explores her role as a stepmother. Without expressly describing the circumstance, she paints a picture of legal battles and court challenges alongside the emotional toll this takes. The ‘listening’ that dominates the first half of the collection is painted as a skill and a much-needed trait in a vet. The final section that covers her stepmotherhood emphasises the impotence of being silenced and not having a voice or agency. She has little choice but to sit back and listen. Pedler is a real thorn in the side of the left-brain/right-brain theory, demonstrating incredible skills and talents in the worlds of both science and the arts. Auscultation is a beautiful collection that goes against any expectations about the relationship between compassion and creativity and the scientific and objective. Her talents are manifold.