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The dust of just beginning
By Don Kerr. 2010
Don Kerr knows prairie culture better than most?he knows it from the inside out. He has made us aware of…
ourselves through his numerous volumes of poetry, his fiction, his many plays, his histories, and his interest in heritage. In this mature, accomplished collection, we can once again admire his unique prairie voice?minimalist, self-effacing, direct yet subtle and nuanced, immersed in his love of the vernacular language of this place. His line is muscular, his timing impeccable, his broad strokes with so few words exemplary.Pivotal Voices, Era of Transition: Toward a 21st Century Poetics
By Rigoberto Gonzalez. 2017
Pivotal Voices, Era of Transition gathers Rigoberto González’s most important essays and book reviews, many of which consider the work…
of emerging poets whose identities and political positions are transforming what readers expect from contemporary poetry. A number of these voices represent intersectional communities, such as queer writers of color like Natalie Díaz, Danez Smith, Ocean Vuong, and Eduardo C. Corral, and many writers, such as Carmen Giménez Smith and David Tomás Martínez, have deep connections to their Latino communities. Collectively, these writers are enriching American poetry to reflect a more diverse, panoramic, and socially conscious literary landscape. Also featured are essays on the poets’ literary ancestors—including Juan Felipe Herrera, Alurista, and Francisco X. Alarcón—and speeches that address the need to leverage poetry as agency. This book fills a glaring gap in existing poetry scholarship by focusing exclusively on writers of color, and particularly on Latino poetry. González makes important observations about the relevance, urgency, and exquisite craft of the work coming from writers who represent marginalized communities. His insightful connections between the Latino, African American, Asian American, and Native American literatures persuasively position them as a collective movement critiquing, challenging, and reorienting the direction of American poetry with their nuanced and politicized verse. González’s inclusive vision covers a wide landscape of writers, opening literary doors for sexual and ethnic minorities.Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland
By Lavinia Greenlaw. 2011
Poet and novelist Lavinia Greenlaw's poetic reflections on William Morris's Icelandic Journal, one of the overlooked masterpieces of travel literatureThe…
great Victorian designer and decorative artist William Morris was fascinated by Iceland and wrote a book documenting his travels there. He gets caught up with questions of travel, noting his reaction to the idea of leaving or arriving, to hurry and delay, what it means to dread a place you’ve never been to or to encounter the actuality of a long-held vision. He is sensitive to the emotional landscape of his band of travelers and, above all, continuously analyzing and fixing this “most romantic of all deserts.”Lavinia Greenlaw follows in his footsteps, and interposes his prose with her own “questions of travel.” The result is a new and composite work that brilliantly explores our conflicted reasons for not staying at home.Children with Enemies
By Stuart Dischell. 2017
There is a gentleness in the midst of savagery in Stuart Dischell’s fifth full-length collection of poetry. These poems are…
ever aware of the momentary grace of the present and the fleeting histories that precede the instants of time. Part elegist, part fabulist, part absurdist, Dischell writes at the edges of imagination, memory, and experience. By turns outwardly social and inwardly reflective, comic and remorseful, the beautifully crafted poems of Children with Enemies transfigure dread with a reluctant wisdom and come alive to the confusions and implications of what it means to be human.Warriors of Love: Rumi's Odes to Shams of Tabriz
By James Cowan, Mevlana Rumi. 2017
In 1244 a man wrapped in a coarse black coat entered Konya and so into the life of Islam’s most…
celebrated poet and mystic: Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. A wanderer and spiritual vagabond, Shams of Tabriz proceeded to wrestle with Rumi’s soul. What he wanted from his protégé was for him to embody a wilder, more robust spirituality that would enable him to embrace life’s rawness more completely than any saint had done in the past.Warriors of Love is a fresh interpretation of a selection of 49 poems which were written by Rumi as metaphors for his love for God as well as for his friend Shams, the Wild One. In a long introduction on the life and times of Rumi and his friendship with Shams James Cowan also explores the historical facts of their encounter, Sufism, the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes, the new dimension that Shams brought to Islamic spirituality and the importance of friendship as a true path to God.Sun in Days: Poems
By Meghan O Rourke. 2017
A groundbreaking new collection by a celebrated writer of “ambitious and dynamic poems” (New York Times). From the acclaimed poet…
and critic Meghan O’Rourke comes a powerful collection about the frailty of the body, the longing for a child, and the philosophical questions raised when the body goes dramatically awry. In formally ambitious poems and lyric essays, Sun in Days gives voice to the experience of illness, the permanence of loss, and invigorating moments of grace. Wresting a recuperative beauty from one’s days, O’Rourke traces an arc from loss and illness to the life force of pregnancy and motherhood. Along the way, she investigates a newfound existential awareness of all that vanishes. This is O’Rourke’s most ambitious book to date: unsentimental yet deeply felt, and characterized by the lyric precision and force of observation for which her work is known. From “Idiopathic Illness” What can be said? I came w/o a warranty, Stripped of me—or me-ish-ness— I was a will in a subpar body. I waxed toward all that waned inside.Purity of Absence
By Dave Margoshes. 2001
In Purity of Absence, Dave Margoshes explores love in its waxing and waning, the extravagance of its fullness, the agony…
of its departure. Like an explorer charting new territory, he casts his eye on the rhythms and syntax of love, observing its aspects both quotidian and rare. The poems in this new collection, Margoshes’s first in a decade, chart the ekg patterns of love, not just the mature love between a man and a woman but love for a parent, friends, knowledge, place and, ultimately, life itself.The Site: A Personal Odyssey
By Robert W. Nero. 2001
Poetry or potsherds? That’s the surprising dilemma one of Canada’s well-known nature writers confronts in The Site: A Personal Odyssey,…
a highly personalized account of a lifetime’s involvement as an avocational archaeologist. With deft descriptive powers, Robert Nero leads us gently into this new facet of his amazing spectrum of interests. Not unexpectedly, there even is poetry in his approach to studying prehistoric remains! From childhood through adolescence, to wartime service with the U.S. Army in the Southwest Pacific, from exploring the vast sand dunes of Lake Athabasca to excavating a 3,000-year-old site he discovered west of Winnipeg, Nero allows us to share his enthusiasm and excitement in outdoor adventures. There is always a wonderful immediacy in his narrative, the mark of a gifted writer, whether expressed in prose or poetry.Prime
By Miranda Pearson. 2001
In Prime, Miranda Pearsons first collection of poetry, the narratives of female identity, the white wedding, and the enshrined position…
of the mother are interrogated, using the lyric as a form of cultural critique in an examination and mockery of romantic love and heterosexual relationships. At the same time, the poems constitute an irreverent, lush romp, a celebration of friendship and absurdity. Gritty and darkly humorous, Pearsons verses address modern myths head-on in a world where love watches itself critically and consciously. Everything is unravelled in poems that disentangle pregnancy from motherhood, custody from caregiving, marriage from love, sex from gender, only to weave these concepts back together in startling new patterns. Pearson deliberately trips over the picket fences of proprieties and sensitivities that surround the New Age marriage. The sacred and profane are crossed daily with frankness, toughness, and warmth. In Prime, British humour and psychoanalytic and feminist theory meet under the poets steady gaze.The Gift of Country Life
By Victor Carl Friesen. 2005
Memories of farming in the 1940s conjure up images of horse-drawn farm machinery, grain stooks in fields, hay meadows, free-range…
chickens and cords of wood strategically placed for fuelling the kitchen range – all before farming became the highly technical, big-time operation it is now. Author Victor Carl Friesen was born and raised on a quarter section farm in Saskatchewan and still owns the "home place." It is there he still goes to renew his inner being. His poems, grouped into seasonal activities or observations, celebrate the rural world. Written in traditional blank verse, his poetry includes activities of yesteryear, his personal connections to rural life and his reverence for nature. Nature, as Henry David Thoreau said, is "one and continuous." Victor Carl Friesen lives and writes in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, but photographs nature anywhere. The first recipient of the Alberta Book Award, he is the author of five books including The Year Is a Circle.Celtic Woman: A Memoir of Life's Poetic Journey
By Treasa O Driscoll. 2583
Celtic Woman explores with open honesty and engaging irony how cycles of personal discovery have connected international performing artist Treasa…
O’Driscoll to heaven and earthbut not the way you’d expect. This surprising memoir of an Irish woman attuned to poetic updrafts and spiritual downloads in the lives of real people, many of them celebrities in Ireland and North America she counts as personal friends, exudes her Celtic heritage on every page. Her encounters in life have been testing, tragic, romantic, and highly comic. O’Driscoll’s life entwines with musicians, poets, teachers, artists, actors, farmers, unexpected strangers and familiar drunkards. Their lives all become a single interwoven tapestry of common meaning connected at the level of the soul.Helsinki Drift
By Douglas Burnet Smith. 2002
Actress Mae West once said "I’ve been things and seen places." Poet Douglas Burnet Smith might well be able to…
lay claim to the same boast. In his latest collection of verse he takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through Amsterdam’s antique streets and canals, Tuscany’s sun-soaked landscapes, Paris’s Gallic gabble of monuments and madcaps, and the title poem’s Finnish auditory and aural delights. In one poem we play Scrabble with Dadaist Tristan Tzara. In another work, "Sophia," we encounter "the mangy wisdom of wild dogs on every street,/skulking, pawing rabid piles of garbage/choking gutters, begging at the front doors of restaurants/like reeducated ideologues." In still another verse the poet’s persona contemplates Italian artist Giotto in Colorado, citing "the copper hogbacks" in which "he sees layered/trecento shale-engraved depictions of Egypt and the Exodus." And everywhere his Muse takes him, Smith injects his stopovers with fresh perspectives, lending credence to seventeenth- century English essayist Sir Thomas Browne’s dictum: "Ready to be anything in the ecstasy of being ever."Weather Report
By Rhonda Batchelor. 2000
Like the shifting and often turbulent skies of our own emotional meteorology, Rhonda Batchelor’s poems forecast the shifting patterns of…
a marriage from quiet moments of a graceful dawn to stormy seas of absence, from brilliant love-strewn sunshowers to dark moments of loss and bitter nights upon the shore. In three sections, "Backbone of the Moon", "Ghostly Dialogues" and "Still Breathing", Batchelor explores the fleeting forever trilogy of expectations, unions and releases that comprise the tidelike phases of a lover’s cycle. Dedicated to respected Canadian poet Charles Lillard, Batchelor’s late husband, this work keens to the notes of a personal lament but emerges triumphantly healed and ultimately blessed.Growing Old Together: And Other Poems
By Robert W Nero. 2005
Naturalist, ornithologist, avocational archaeologist and poet, Winnipegs Dr. Robert W. Nero has authored nine books dealing with his amazing spectrum…
of interests. Growing Old Together is the newest collection of poetry by this gifted writer, revealing his sensitivity and keen observation of the natural world. In his frequently passionate poetry Nero pays tribute to his wife, Ruth, who has, over many years, encouraged Bob to write and to pursue his outdoor interests – all the while sharing him with "Lady Grayl," the great gray owl he found injured and starving in 1984. From that time on, Lady Grayl toured with Bob Nero to raise funds for numerous environmental projects and to educate thousands of children and adults about conservation. This remarkable association ended in October of 2005 with the passing of Lady Grayl at age 21.5. It is fitting that Manitoba Day 2005 honoured the Great Gray Owl, the official provincial bird – and, yes, Lady Grayl was involved.When September Comes: And Other Poems
By Peter Jailall. 2003
Peter Jailall continues his search for the place called home in his third volume of poetry, exploring the "open, dangerous"…
landscape of a post-September 11th world. In this climate of globalization, none are untouched by the threats of terrorism or the spoils of modernization and its effect on our environment. As poet, teacher and storyteller, Peter’s unique gift for the blending of language – from Caribbean-accented English to Hindi – allows him to paint beautiful dichotomies between the Guyana of his birth, and the Canada that is his current home. "To those of us in the worldwide Guyanese diaspora, Peter’s poetry is cultural regeneration and joy. It generates the anchorage of identity and self respect in a sea of uncertainty and adjustment. To our host communities it provides insights into who we are as persons. It encourages the realization that hopes, fears, and aspirations are common across cultures and all are worthy of understanding and respect. To all who read Peter’s work come challenges to thought and imagination, glowing pride, and prolonged pleasure." – Judaman Seecoomar, PhD, Author "Peter Jailall speaks poignantly to problems of identity and the painful feelings associated with movement and change in this fine new collection. He examines past and present and points to our need to find out and accept who we really are before cultural identity can be recognized."– Bob Barton, Storyteller, writer, educator (OISE, University of Toronto)Copper Woman: And Other Poems
By Afua Cooper. 2006
Copper Woman and Other Poems is a collection of poems that announces a humanistic vision, dealing with such themes as…
rebirth (physical and symbolic), mythology, memory, bondage, blood, family, identities in flux, migration, politics and flights of fancy. The contents move back and forth between the past and the present, and project into the future, envisioning a new world/a new creation. The message that we are our brothers and our sisters keepers and that the earth is our home – a home that we must protect and keep safe if we are to survive – resonates throughout. Copper Woman is a call to arms against apathy and all forms of tyranny. It is liberatory dub poetics that say equality and equity are possible and within reach. It invites its readers to cast off their chains and shackles and proclaim their freedom. It invites us all to grasp a greater vision of our world. Jamaican-born Dr. Afua Cooper has achieved considerable success as a dub poet and as the author of a children’s book, a collection of poetry and as co-author of The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! Dr. Cooper is a recent recipient of the Harry Jerome Award for Professional Excellence.The Year Is a Circle: A Celebration of Henry David Thoreau
By Victor Carl Friesen. 1995
Henry David Thoreau is remembered as a foremost nature writer. He was an ecologist before the term was invented. A…
man of many parts, including social critic, he is known to have had an influence on such internationally recognized leaders as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. "Victor Carl Friesen, author of The Spirit of the Huckleberry, an astute analysis of Henry David Thoreau’s prose, again demonstrates his affinity for the Walden sage with this unique volume of poems and photographs. Taking a series of quotations demonstrating Thoreau’s sensuousness, he writes a poem for each and then illustrates them with outstanding colour photographs. The poems, mostly written in the blank verse form, have sturdy strength and remarkable insight into both Thoreau and nature."- Walter Harding, Founding Secretary, The Thoreau Society Inc., State University of New York, Genesco "Friesen is particularly qualified as a Thoreau scholar, for his personal interests extend well beyond literature to include natural history, a subject very much at the centre of Thoreau’s writings."- Canadian Book Review AnnualWords for Trees
By Barbara Folkart. 2002
In this Ottawa writer s first volume of verse there are trees of coursecatalpas on stained-glass…
transoms an ever-present crabappel nameless species in whose bare branches the winter solstice lurks There is music tooa whorehouse tango a string quartet enthralling a favourite cat the silky caress of a clarinet along the remembered flesh of adolescence And visual art from the Middle Ages through Matisse is reenacted in vignettes of desire or derelictionIron Mountain
By Mark Frutkin. 2001
Of one of Mark Frutkin s previous books of verse Poetry Canada Review said it provided …
a supernatural fusion of the earthbound with the heavenly to forge the lightning of poetry Divided into two sections one inspired by ancient Chinese art the other limning the ambiguities and incongruities of the contemporary human condition Frutkin s new volume of poetry Iron Mountain often presents human beings wandering in the wilderness between two abysses while still appreciating the smell of pines the softness of the rain the brilliance of the stars the hum of the computer and the jostle of the crowd on the bus These are poems of translucent delicacy harbouring hard truths where A Taoist priest gulps the elixir of immortality and blows away in the dust a young Chinese girl bumps me in the crowd prompting a shiver like a startled phoenix dressed in my skin In Frutkin s vision the entire world is a written landscape that speaks to us of time of change of immutability of radiant emptinessThe Alchemy of Happiness
By Marilyn Bowering. 2002
In her new volume of verse, Bowering continues her rigorous, ambitious path and delivers poems that blend a variety of…
personalities, times, and places that add up to an overall substance she sees as happiness. Like an alchemist of old, she transmutes experiences, perceptions, and perspectives into something richer and rarer despite the passage of years and the loss and death they have brought.