Review: Smoke & Mirrors and Other Poems by Maggie Huscroft

In this collection of poetry, Maggie Huscroft reveals an artist’s yearning and a sharp sense of humor. A designer, illustrator, and painter, Huscroft left her teaching post at University of Westminster when diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. While she continues to paint, poetry has become her main outlet for creativity.

Several of Huscroft’s poems deal directly with painting and with the urge to create. “Painting Not for Sale” reveals the artist’s drive to craft her own reality: “Slashes of red are poppies now, / Spots of blue, cornflowers. / Purple and cobalt glazes / Make clouds thunderous. / Till, finally, / I have painted a world / That I can live in.” Alas, her disease has stolen some of that skill from her hands. Huscroft’s sense of frustration creates tension in much of her work. “Cumbersome / I move in slow-mo / my limbs, intermittently / disconnected from / the control centre, / do not obey my instructions. / But in my dreams I dance the tango.”

But all is not lost, for Huscroft’s painterly tendencies have translated beautifully to poetry. The eye trained for detail serves her equally well as a poet, and some of her work even feels like painting: “oriental red blossoms / now mingle / with fresh green leaves / on the Japanese quince / and rose bushes arch / with rusty red / and ruby shoots.” The sparseness of language echoes the briskness of the spring wind, and instills in the reader a longing for the signs of the coming summer.

Equally engaging are her humorous poems, including one that Dorothy Parker would be proud to claim: “Take me, you impulsive beast / While the sugar’s in the yeast / Take me while the pan is greased / Take me north-north-east / Take me, make me last not least / Take me before the dog’s released / Take me before we’re both deceased / Take me! Take me! Take me!” Like her other work, Huscroft’s quirky, funny poems reveal her ability to transmute careful observation into art, whether the subject be an intractable spell-check program or a William Shakespeare T-shirt.

Huscroft’s poetry shows an easy familiarity with rhyming couplets and free verse as well as a deep love of language and cadence. Her work is steeped in the colors and sounds of her native England. Whether serious or frivolous, Huscroft’s poems show their author to be a wonderfully observant woman and a tart and entertaining companion.