Triny Finlay
Biography
Triny Finlay - photo courtesy of unb.ca
Tatrina Finlay was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1976 to Canadian parents who soon moved home to Toronto, Ontario, where Finlay grew up. She attended Mount Allison University for her Bachelor of Arts Degree, the University of New Brunswick for her Masters in English & Creative Writing, and studied for her PhD at the University of Toronto.
Finlay has held various careers, including working as a nanny, a community outreach worker, a lifeguard, and as an editor for the literary magazine Echolocation. Finlay currently lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick where she works at the University of New Brunswick teaching Creative Writing and English Literature courses. Her research interests include poetics, genre theory, and women writers.
Finlay has published three books of poetry: Splitting Off (Nightwood Editions, 2004), Histories Haunt Us (Nightwood Editions, 2010) and, Myself A Paperclip (icehouse/Goose Lane 2021), and two chapbooks, Phobic (Gaspereau Press, 2006) andYou don’t want what I’ve got (Junction 2018) . She is currently working on what will be a poem the length of a novel titled Scavenge.
Various poems by Finlay have been published in literary magazines such as Arc, Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, Broken Pencil, Contemporary Verse 2, The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Modomnoc, Grain, University of Toronto Quarterly, Other Voices, Pottersfield Portfolio, Qwerty Decade, and Gaspereau Gloriatur: Book of the Blessed Tenth Year.
Finlay has held various careers, including working as a nanny, a community outreach worker, a lifeguard, and as an editor for the literary magazine Echolocation. Finlay currently lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick where she works at the University of New Brunswick teaching Creative Writing and English Literature courses. Her research interests include poetics, genre theory, and women writers.
Finlay has published three books of poetry: Splitting Off (Nightwood Editions, 2004), Histories Haunt Us (Nightwood Editions, 2010) and, Myself A Paperclip (icehouse/Goose Lane 2021), and two chapbooks, Phobic (Gaspereau Press, 2006) andYou don’t want what I’ve got (Junction 2018) . She is currently working on what will be a poem the length of a novel titled Scavenge.
Various poems by Finlay have been published in literary magazines such as Arc, Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets, Broken Pencil, Contemporary Verse 2, The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, Modomnoc, Grain, University of Toronto Quarterly, Other Voices, Pottersfield Portfolio, Qwerty Decade, and Gaspereau Gloriatur: Book of the Blessed Tenth Year.
It begins again, eighth day of watermelon chewing gum
Sanka in tangerine packets, all singles.
Someone’s fine-tuned hummingbird tattoo
pills and group and pills and group and pills.
This is a public unveiling.
A clot, a break in the loop.
The shock of automatic toilets, sinks,
no tubs, no pipes exposed
no leverage.
Remove the desk lamp.
Remove the glass vases, the tweezers, the clippers –
a vague future in welts and shards, electrical cords.
Lights out, every night, staring at the gap
between the door and the reinforced door jamb.
Published in Histories Haunt Us (Nightwood Editions, 2010).
Used with permission of the author.
Sanka in tangerine packets, all singles.
Someone’s fine-tuned hummingbird tattoo
pills and group and pills and group and pills.
This is a public unveiling.
A clot, a break in the loop.
The shock of automatic toilets, sinks,
no tubs, no pipes exposed
no leverage.
Remove the desk lamp.
Remove the glass vases, the tweezers, the clippers –
a vague future in welts and shards, electrical cords.
Lights out, every night, staring at the gap
between the door and the reinforced door jamb.
Published in Histories Haunt Us (Nightwood Editions, 2010).
Used with permission of the author.
Critical Analysis: A Controlled Narrative for a Controlled Environment
Monica Grasse (ACPA Managing Editor) and Kelsey Estey (Advanced Poetry Workshop)
Triny Finaly creates a depression narrative through her poetic series “Abstract Loss.” Through her verse, powerul feelings and experiences of someone with depression are evoked to the reader to bring them into the abstract life of group therapy. “Abstract Loss, 5” is in one such poem which characterizes the institutionalism that can surround depression, which leave suffers entrapped.
The obscure and fragmented line structure of “Abstract Loss, 5” leaves the poem open to the interpretation of each reader while simultaneously characterizing the life of someone living with depression. This poetic choice counters the heavily controlled, classic 14-line sonnet, which demonstrates the controlled environment of mental health institutions. The broken lines also work to represent the scattered thoughts of the narrator as they experience first-hand the entrapment while sitting in a group therapy session, hearing stories from the other members and desperately trying to piece together some form of hope. As the narrator moves from noticing someone’s “fine-tuned hummingbird tattoo,” the “automatic toilets,” and the various physical items that are slowly being “remove[d]” along with their dignity, they realize that there is no room for hope in their dictated schedule (3, 7, 10). The acute awareness of objects brings readers into the group therapy session by allowing us to listen to others’ feelings and struggles as a way of drawing empathy.
The narrator captures the torture of group therapy by categorizing it as a “public unveiling,” but mentions nothing of what was revealed (5). This reinforces the idea that thoughts are mostly kept to one’s self. The obscurities that contradict the typical therapy session further work to put emphasis on the thoughts of the trapped patients and not their feelings. Because the thoughts are void of emotion, readers can only imagine the feelings of the patients and not truly experience them. The thoughts also work to demonstrate the unfamiliarity of the room. As mentioned earlier, the constant removal of objects slowly takes away the dignity and comfort of the patients, therefore adding to their entrapment. The safety and surveillance meant by the removal of the “glass vases, the tweezers, the clippers” is done for the well-being of the patients, but serves only as a reminder of the “vague future” ahead of them where the familiar becomes more and more obscure (11, 12). The thoughts of the narrator reveal the loss of an abstract life and the force of a controlled, overbearing present and indisputable future highly lacking emotion and feeling.
When read by its form and for notice of thoughts over emotions, readers will gain a deeper knowledge of the unknown world of depression if they have never experienced it. As a depression narrative, “Abstract Loss, 5” gives a voice to the institutionalized and heavily controlled members of group therapy to speak beyond the confines of illness or structured healing in order to bring light back inside the door that is “reinforced” with the “door jamb” (14).
Works Cited (for analysis):
Finlay, Tatrina. “Abstract Loss, 5.” Histories Haunt Us. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2010. 15.
Triny Finaly creates a depression narrative through her poetic series “Abstract Loss.” Through her verse, powerul feelings and experiences of someone with depression are evoked to the reader to bring them into the abstract life of group therapy. “Abstract Loss, 5” is in one such poem which characterizes the institutionalism that can surround depression, which leave suffers entrapped.
The obscure and fragmented line structure of “Abstract Loss, 5” leaves the poem open to the interpretation of each reader while simultaneously characterizing the life of someone living with depression. This poetic choice counters the heavily controlled, classic 14-line sonnet, which demonstrates the controlled environment of mental health institutions. The broken lines also work to represent the scattered thoughts of the narrator as they experience first-hand the entrapment while sitting in a group therapy session, hearing stories from the other members and desperately trying to piece together some form of hope. As the narrator moves from noticing someone’s “fine-tuned hummingbird tattoo,” the “automatic toilets,” and the various physical items that are slowly being “remove[d]” along with their dignity, they realize that there is no room for hope in their dictated schedule (3, 7, 10). The acute awareness of objects brings readers into the group therapy session by allowing us to listen to others’ feelings and struggles as a way of drawing empathy.
The narrator captures the torture of group therapy by categorizing it as a “public unveiling,” but mentions nothing of what was revealed (5). This reinforces the idea that thoughts are mostly kept to one’s self. The obscurities that contradict the typical therapy session further work to put emphasis on the thoughts of the trapped patients and not their feelings. Because the thoughts are void of emotion, readers can only imagine the feelings of the patients and not truly experience them. The thoughts also work to demonstrate the unfamiliarity of the room. As mentioned earlier, the constant removal of objects slowly takes away the dignity and comfort of the patients, therefore adding to their entrapment. The safety and surveillance meant by the removal of the “glass vases, the tweezers, the clippers” is done for the well-being of the patients, but serves only as a reminder of the “vague future” ahead of them where the familiar becomes more and more obscure (11, 12). The thoughts of the narrator reveal the loss of an abstract life and the force of a controlled, overbearing present and indisputable future highly lacking emotion and feeling.
When read by its form and for notice of thoughts over emotions, readers will gain a deeper knowledge of the unknown world of depression if they have never experienced it. As a depression narrative, “Abstract Loss, 5” gives a voice to the institutionalized and heavily controlled members of group therapy to speak beyond the confines of illness or structured healing in order to bring light back inside the door that is “reinforced” with the “door jamb” (14).
Works Cited (for analysis):
Finlay, Tatrina. “Abstract Loss, 5.” Histories Haunt Us. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2010. 15.
Bibliography
Primary Sources: Poetry
Finlay, Triny. "Advice to the Mentally Ill from the Queen Bee." Plenitude Magazine, plenitudemagazine.ca, 27 Nov 2018.
---. “Back to the Modern: Three Ottawa Poets.” Arc Poetry Magazine 57 (2006): 90-95.
---. “Blue,” “Red,” “Girl,” “Boy.” The Fiddlehead 212 (2002): 80-81.
---. “Blue.” Pottersfield Portfolio 21.1 (2000): 53.
---. “Confidence Tricks.” Eds. Jill Connell and Joel Katelnikoff. Qwerty Decade. Fredericton: Icehouse Press/Qwerty Books, 2006. 83-84.
---. “Crush.” The Malahat Review 190 (2015): 38-39.
---. “Dreaming Your Anaphylaxis.” trinyfinaly.com. 1 Mar. 2016.
---. Histories Haunt Us. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2010.
---. “Inceptions of skin,” “Potatoes.” The Antigonish Review 128 (2002): 105-106.
---. “Liking Chocolate Again.” Grain 25.2 (1997): 59.
---. "#MeToo, and You, and You, and You, Too." The London Reader (Winter 2018): 83-85.
---. The Moment When It Seems Most Plain. Dissertation/Thesis. Toronto: Unviersity of Toronto, 2002.
---. Myself A Paperclip. icehouse/Gooselane. 2021.
---. “Of February.” The Globe and Mail 2004: M7.
---. “Of Future Cosmetics.” Contemporary Verse 2 29.4 (2007): 49. n.d.
---. “Of What I Have Always Known.” The Fieldstone Review. fiddlestonereview.usask.com. n.d.
---. “Phobic.” Broken Pencil 29 (2004): 30.
---. Phobic. Kentville: Gaspereau Press, 2006.
---. “Review of Donna Kane’s Somewhere, A Fire.” Arc Poetry Magazine 56 (2006): 101-102.
---. “Review of Jeanette Lynes’s The Aging Cheerleader’s Alphabet.” Arc Poetry Magazine 52 (2004): 102.
---. “Review of Margaret Atwood’s The Tent.” Ideas 3.2 (2006): 57.
---. “Self-Portrait as Someone You Might Like to Meet.” trinyfinlay.com.
---. “Snails.” Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. Eds. Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. Roberts Creek: Nightwood Editions, 2004. 58-
62.
---. “Splitting off.” Arc Poetry Magazine 53 (2004): 99-100.
---. “Splitting off.” Journal of Canadian Poetry 21 (2007): 57.
---. Splitting Off. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2004.
---. “Three Out of the Box: ‘Splitting off,’ ‘Viral Suite,’ ‘Running in Prospect Cemetery’: new and selected poems.” The Globe and Mail 2004: D12. 2004.
---. “Untitled Ghazal.” Other Voices 12.1 (1999): 16.
---. “We fight rancid winds all summer.” The Fiddlehead 206 (2000): 91.
---. “We Fight Rancid Winds…” The Fiddlehead 206 (2000): 91.
---. “Writing Lovers: Reading Canadian Love Poetry by Women.” University of Toronto Quarterly 76.1 (2007): 607-608.
---. You don't want what I've got. Toronto: Junction Books, 2018.
Finlay, Triny. "Advice to the Mentally Ill from the Queen Bee." Plenitude Magazine, plenitudemagazine.ca, 27 Nov 2018.
---. “Back to the Modern: Three Ottawa Poets.” Arc Poetry Magazine 57 (2006): 90-95.
---. “Blue,” “Red,” “Girl,” “Boy.” The Fiddlehead 212 (2002): 80-81.
---. “Blue.” Pottersfield Portfolio 21.1 (2000): 53.
---. “Confidence Tricks.” Eds. Jill Connell and Joel Katelnikoff. Qwerty Decade. Fredericton: Icehouse Press/Qwerty Books, 2006. 83-84.
---. “Crush.” The Malahat Review 190 (2015): 38-39.
---. “Dreaming Your Anaphylaxis.” trinyfinaly.com. 1 Mar. 2016.
---. Histories Haunt Us. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2010.
---. “Inceptions of skin,” “Potatoes.” The Antigonish Review 128 (2002): 105-106.
---. “Liking Chocolate Again.” Grain 25.2 (1997): 59.
---. "#MeToo, and You, and You, and You, Too." The London Reader (Winter 2018): 83-85.
---. The Moment When It Seems Most Plain. Dissertation/Thesis. Toronto: Unviersity of Toronto, 2002.
---. Myself A Paperclip. icehouse/Gooselane. 2021.
---. “Of February.” The Globe and Mail 2004: M7.
---. “Of Future Cosmetics.” Contemporary Verse 2 29.4 (2007): 49. n.d.
---. “Of What I Have Always Known.” The Fieldstone Review. fiddlestonereview.usask.com. n.d.
---. “Phobic.” Broken Pencil 29 (2004): 30.
---. Phobic. Kentville: Gaspereau Press, 2006.
---. “Review of Donna Kane’s Somewhere, A Fire.” Arc Poetry Magazine 56 (2006): 101-102.
---. “Review of Jeanette Lynes’s The Aging Cheerleader’s Alphabet.” Arc Poetry Magazine 52 (2004): 102.
---. “Review of Margaret Atwood’s The Tent.” Ideas 3.2 (2006): 57.
---. “Self-Portrait as Someone You Might Like to Meet.” trinyfinlay.com.
---. “Snails.” Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. Eds. Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. Roberts Creek: Nightwood Editions, 2004. 58-
62.
---. “Splitting off.” Arc Poetry Magazine 53 (2004): 99-100.
---. “Splitting off.” Journal of Canadian Poetry 21 (2007): 57.
---. Splitting Off. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2004.
---. “Three Out of the Box: ‘Splitting off,’ ‘Viral Suite,’ ‘Running in Prospect Cemetery’: new and selected poems.” The Globe and Mail 2004: D12. 2004.
---. “Untitled Ghazal.” Other Voices 12.1 (1999): 16.
---. “We fight rancid winds all summer.” The Fiddlehead 206 (2000): 91.
---. “We Fight Rancid Winds…” The Fiddlehead 206 (2000): 91.
---. “Writing Lovers: Reading Canadian Love Poetry by Women.” University of Toronto Quarterly 76.1 (2007): 607-608.
---. You don't want what I've got. Toronto: Junction Books, 2018.
