In Formless Circumstance: Poems from the Road and Home by Trevor Carolan Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2019 $23.95 / 9781771713306 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * “All busy in the sunlight/ the flecks did float and dance/ and I was tumbled up with them/ in formless circumstance.” So sings the late, great Leonard Cohen, Canada’s poet of…
Read more #766 Home truths and away truths
On the Arts by Naomi Beth Wakan Brunswick, Maine: Shanti Arts Publishing, 2020 $17.95 (U.S.) / 9781951651091 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * Every man is at liberty to understand nothing about anything. So said Montaigne. Or at least Naomi Wakan says that he said it, and I am not going to contradict her. He certainly…
Read more #763 Beach glass on a bed of seaweed
Near Miss: Poems by Laura Matwichuk Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2019 $18.95 / 9780889713536 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * Worrier that I am, opening to the first pages of Near Miss, I find myself right at home, greeted by a list of dates, from 1700 through to 2012. My paranoid side recognizes these immediately as dates…
Read more #755 Seismophobia and quicksilver
Gatecrasher by Susan Buis Picton, Ontario: Invisible Publishing, 2019 $17.95 / 9781988784267 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * We do not have to wait long with Susan Buis’s first volume, Gatecrasher, to realize that we are in the presence of a formidably original poetic talent. Take the first four lines of the first poem, “Arrowslit:” Quarry…
Read more #753 Pungency and plate glass
A Literary Biography of Robin Blaser: Mechanic of Splendor by Miriam Nichols New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 $39.99 (U.S.) / 9783030183264 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * The most astonishing section of this book comes when author Miriam Nichols describes Robin Blaser’s time as a teacher at Simon Fraser University. Perhaps it is because…
Read more #749 Robin Blaser in retrospect
The Eyelash and the Monochrome by Tiziana La Melia Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772011975 * beholden: a poem as long as a river by Rita Wong and Fred Wah Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $24.95 / 9781772012118 Both books reviewed by Candace Fertile * …
Read more #739 Consider the image and the word
Taking Measures: Selected Serial Poems by George Bowering, edited by Stephen Collis Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2019 $49.95 (hardcover) / 9781772012378 (softcover $29.95 due Fall 2020) * Ten Women: Stories by George Bowering Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2015 $20.00 / 9781772140316 * Writing and Reading: Essays by George Bowering Vancouver: New Star Books, 2019 $18.00 / 9781554201549 Three…
Read more #736 Bowering’s ashes and sparks
Odes and Laments by Fiona Tinwei Lam Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $18.00 / 9781773860152 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * Fiona Tinwei Lam has long been an important presence in the Vancouver literary scene, not only as a poet but also as the editor of an excellent anthology, The Bright Well (Leaf Press, 2011), contemporary…
Read more #735 A distant howl between covers
A Bed of Half Full: A Landscape by Judith Penner Vancouver: Nomados Press, 2018 $10.00 / 9781927751084 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * A casual search for the definition of a landscape brings this up from the databanks of the internet: “all the visible features of an area … often considered in terms of their aesthetic…
Read more #731 Chestnuts and wild city animals
Every Shameless Ray by Leslie Timmins Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2018 $18.95 / 9781771335775 Reviewed by P.W. Bridgman * As can be gathered from its enigmatic title, Vancouver poet Leslie Timmins’ first collection, Every Shameless Ray, is much concerned with matters of darkness, shadows and light. Oftentimes these conceits are introduced metaphorically in her poetry; at…
Read more #725 Tenebrous and illuminating
Pensive & beyond by Joanne Arnott Vancouver: Nomados, 2019 $10.00 / 9781927751107 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * Joanne Arnott’s voice is, figuratively and literally, one of Canadian poetry’s strongest. A captivating and intimate writer since her first book of poetry, Wiles of Girlhood (1991), Arnott is also a consummate performer. Yet her influence on Canadian…
Read more #717 A celebration of friendships
A Matins Flywheel by John Lent Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2019 $20 / 9781771871914 Reviewed by Trevor Carolan * John Lent, the veteran BC poet, writes from Vernon where he has taught at Okanagan College and performed as a jazz artist for years. Within the literary community, he has long been appreciated for his contributions to…
Read more #712 Okanagan verse and jazz
In memoriam E.D. Blodgett by James Felton (editor) * Born in Philadelphia in 1935, E.D. Blodgett (Ted) (Edward Dickinson) Blodgett came to Canada in 1966 to teach at the University of Alberta. He wrote 22 books of poetry, one of which, Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano (Ottawa: Buschek Books, 1996), won the Governor General’s Award for…
Read more #711 In memoriam E.D. Blodgett
What is Long Past Occurs in Full Light by Marilyn Bowering Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2019 $21.00 / 9781896949727 Reviewed by P.W. Bridgman * Near the end of her new collection, What is Long Past Occurs in Full Light, Marilyn Bowering concludes a poem entitled “The Consolation of Philosophy” with these words: What…
Read more #688 How must it feel to write this way?
Rail by Miranda Pearson Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2019 $17.95 / 9780773558946 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * If surprise is a necessary ingredient of good poetry, Miranda Pearson’s fifth volume, Rail, will not disappoint. Those who know her four previous volumes — Prime, The Aviary, Harbour, and The Fire Extinguisher — will recognize…
Read more #684 English views & melting glaciers