International Woman's Day
It's International Woman's day and to celebrate I started to make a list of women poets I really liked. But that list was not working, my fault, not the women.Instead I decided to raid my shelves and...
View ArticleSaturday, March 9, 2013
Spent the afternoon looking over Cameron Anstee's excellent poetry collection. The temptation to steal was overwhelming but as his fiance Jenn is a boxer I was able to come to my senses. There are...
View ArticleJulie Bruck - The End of Travel
Today's book of poems - The End of Travel, Julie Bruck, Brick Books, 1999, 2012.If I had been on a jury in 1999 and read this book by Julie Bruck she might have won the GG a decade ago.It was only a...
View ArticleMeeting William Hawkins
Today I met William Hawkins. I'd been wanting to meet him for a long time. When I moved to Ottawa almost thirty years ago he was the poet I wanted to meet. But I never felt I could, or should, just...
View ArticleArticle 19
Today's book of poems, There Devil, Eat That. Jonarno Lawson, Pedlar Press, 2011.Lawson's There Devil, Eat That is by turns brilliant and banal. The best of the poems in this collection are startling...
View ArticleNico Rogers - The Fetch
Today's book is a book of short and shorter stories. The Fetch by Nico Rogers. Brick Books, 2010.Part Christopher Pratt and part Alistair MacLeod. These short stories paint in vivid detail the...
View ArticleCarolyn Smart - Hooked
Today's book of poetry - Hooked, by Carolyn Smart. Brick Books. 2009, 2011.Smart tackles the lives of seven women, some known better than others, and uses their trajectories to muse on everything...
View Articlebest poem ever - for poetry day
Musee des Beaux ArtsAbout suffering they were never wrong,The Old Masters: how well they understoodIts human position; how it takes placeWhile someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking...
View ArticleAlice Major - The Occupied World
Today's book of poems - The Occupied World, Alice Major, University of Alberta Press, 2006.These are the days of supplication and suspensewhen the inevitable maintainsthe delicate, rigorous balance of...
View Article1996 - Sara Peters
Today's book of poems. 1996, Sara Peters. House of Anansi Press. Toronto. 2013.Sara Peters debut book 1996 can not be a first book. Peters is playing with us. Clearly she has done some sort of...
View ArticleThe Polymers - Adam Dickinson
Today's book of poems - The Polymers. Adam Dickinson. House of Anansi Press. Toronto. 2013.As a reader you are going to need a dictionary and an open mind. Dickinson throws out ideas faster than...
View ArticleUnder The Keel - Michael Crummey
Today's book of poetry - Under The Keel, Michael Crummey, House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2013.I started to smile early on when reading the first poem, a comfortable familiar when reading Michael...
View ArticleThe Flower of Youth - Mary di Michele
Today's book of poetry - The Flower of Youth ( Pier Paolo Pasolini Poems). Mary di Michele. ECW Press. Toronto. 2011.To prepare for Mary di Michele's The Flower of Youth, I went to the shelf and...
View ArticleThe Chimney Stone - Rob Winger
Today's book of poems: The Chimney Stone, Rob Winger. Nightwood Editions. Gibson, B.C.. 2010.Phyllis Webb. Adrienne Rich. John Thompson. Emmylou Harris. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Trent Reznor....
View ArticleAll That Desire, New and Selected - Betsy Struthers
Today's book of poems: All That Desire, New and Selected Poems, Betsy Struthers, Black Moss Press, 2012.All That Desire, Betsy Struthers new and selected poems is a surprise to me. Not because the...
View ArticleIn This Thin Rain - Nelson Ball
Today's book of poems: In This Thin Rain. Nelson Ball. Mansfield Press. A Stuart Ross Book. Toronto. 2012.Previous to this I've read Bird Tracks On Hard Snow (ECW, 1994), and At The Edge Of The...
View ArticleGhost Music - Mark D. Dunn, Fancy Clapping - Mark D. Dunn
Today's books of poetry are: Ghost Music. Mark D. Dunn. Buschek Books. Ottawa. 2010. and Fancy Clapping. Mark D. Dunn. Scriverner Press. Sudbury. 2012.Ghost Music, Mark D. Dunn's first book is...
View Articlewhen this world comes to an end - Kate Cayley
Today's book of poems: when this world comes to an end. Kate Cayley. Brick Books. London. 2013."Oh there'll be signs and wonders" - folk song Appalachian MountainsThis line appears in a verse of...
View ArticleSteve Kulash & other autopsies - Catherine Owen
Today's chapbook of poetry: Steve Kulash & other autopsies. Catherine Owen. AngelHousePress. Ottawa. 2012 (Edition of 50)The poems in this volume come from two Owen manuscripts, Madame...
View Article