Poetry
for The Man with the Dancing Monkey (Wolsak and Wynn, 1997)
Canadian Literature, Summer 2002
“The Man with the Dancing Monkey (1997) has been recognized as an important first book… This is a dynamic collection with fifty-four poems ranging from the bitterly ironic “The Garden of the Man Whose Wife Has Left Him” to the humorous “My Muse is a Tramp” to the meditative “Passage” with its three poignant movements: Conception, The Second Trimester, and Miscarriage. The imagery is elemental and skillful, by turns profuse and stark, always moving deftly among the senses.”
Rampike, Vol. 9, #2
“Barbara Curry Mulcahy offers wit, true emotion, and real life situations with an insightful, and provocative style”
Feminist Bookstore News, Vol. 20, #4
“A dazzling first book of poems”
Backwater Review, Spring/Summer 1998
“In small perfect snapshots, she records the world around her”
The Dalhousie Review, Vol 76, #1
“a talent to watch”
Canadian Book Review Annual, Vol. 23
“This fresh and thoroughly enjoyable first collection by Alberta poet Barbara Mulcahy expresses a mythic view. We learn about odd manifestations of the Muse in Mulcahy’s remote northern Alberta setting, and are treated to a set of fine meditations on the Raven (a bird with legendary associations), which are reminiscent of Ted Hughes’ Crow. Mulcahy’s poems are varied in style and full of the kind of detail that lends authenticity. This is a deeply satisfying book, filling needs we nay not know we have.”
Bert Almon