Eliza and the Bear by Eleanor Rees

Author photo © Dave Ward

If you read this blog you know I love fairy tale influenced poetry and paintings. This collection of poems by Eleanor Rees explores dreamy, fairy tale imagey, night visions and sensual desires. The images are vivid and there is a feeling of urgency and tension in her choice of words that unsettled and intrigued me.

The title poem, 'Eliza and the Bear' appealed to me immediately as I have always adored the fairy tale of Snow White and Rose Red and one of my poems is based on Rose Red and her bear lover. It could be said I am fascinated/obsessed by animal/human shapeshifting (I should be working on my dissertation on that very theme right now but instead I am writing this review...!)

Rees uses the refrain of 'I did not know my lover was a bear' to document a series of encounters and contemplations about what that entails. The wild and the domestic, the animal and human depths of love. It is a long poem with seven sections but that is very effective as it feels like an epic tale told around a campfire (with a bear snufflling in the darkness of the trees just outside the ring of light from the fire.) The poem is oustanding and my favourite in the collection. It is dramatic and darkly erotic.

“Three Bears” by Krista Huot

'I did not know my lover was a bear.
I did not know he was on all fours all night
crawling the streets looking for the wilderness.
I did not know he wanted to go
back to woods and harsh brackish skies.
I did not know he wished to go.
He never said
Sweetheart I am a bear I am leaving now.'









video of Eleanor reading 'The Changeling'



you can buy the book here...