Book Review
Review: Bricolage: A Gathering of Centos
Reviewed by K.V. Skene Bricolage: A Gathering of Centos by A. Garnett Weiss (Aeolus House, 2021) A. Garnett Weiss’s Bricolage is a truly beautiful publication – inside and out. The cover art, ‘Cathedral Forest’ by Diana Gubbay, is a superb significator for this recent addition to Aeolus House’s book list. The word bricolage is adopted…
Read MoreReview: Shape Taking by Elana Wolff
Reviewed by Lynn Tait Shape Taking by Elana Wolff (Ekstasis Editions, 2021) Colour, art, fairytales, surrealism, humour—whether writing about the whites of eggs or bird poop as colour or description, Elana Wolff brings us into her poems with word craft, narrative and beauty. Colour weaves through these poems in blues, whites, reds and greens. Reading her…
Read MoreReview: Becoming History, A Life Told Through Poetry by Blaine Marchand
Reviewed by David C. Brydges However good the usage of words may be, a poem with nothing to touch the heart is like a wooden doll clad with finery and no feeling. It is much better to express feeling with plain words than no feeling with just fine words. ─ Takuan Soho We skate around…
Read MoreReview of Keeping Count by M. Travis Lane
Reviewed by Marguerite Pigeon Keeping Count by M. Travis Lane (Gordon Hill Press, 2021) How can we think about aging and death? As frightening inevitabilities—matters of dread? As processes we’d prefer to wish away or hand over for biomedical oversight (at least in some cultures)? In Keeping Count (Gordon Hill,…
Read MoreReview of Cattail Skyline By Joanne Epp
Reviewed by Michael Edwards Cattail Skyline by Joanne Epp (Turnstone Press) Joanne Epp’s Cattail Skyline (Turnstone Press, 2021) is her second poetry collection. The book is an attentive and intimate poetic treatment of the Canadian prairie landscape. Her poems are immediate and mindful and often steeped in a sense of nostalgia. Though some of…
Read MoreTwo Voices: A Review of The Blue Moth of Morning by P.C. Vandall
Reviewed by Louise Carson The Blue Moth of Morning by P.C. Vandall, The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020. It wasn’t until I reached the last pages of The Blue Moth of Morning, in the section entitled Stage Four: Moth, that I began to understand the structure and/or intent of the poet and/or editor. Call me slow, but…
Read MoreReview: footsteps in the garden by Bob Mackenzie
Reviewed by Vanessa Shields footsteps in the garden by Bob MacKenzie (cyberwit.net, 2021) Bob MacKenzie’s latest collection of poetry, footsteps in the garden is for settling in. This is a collection that wants your time and attention for its spirographic dances with words in a plethora of gardens, both real and imagined. MacKenzie’s gift with…
Read MoreReview: The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak by Grace Lau
Reviewed by Padmaja Battani The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak by Grace Lau, Guernica Editions, 2021 The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak, debut poetry collection by Grace Lau is an intensive attempt in discovering concealed elements of immigrant inheritances. It also depicts the themes of queer yearnings, multi-generational mysteries among Asian…
Read MoreReview: Metastasis by Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews
Reviewed by Emma Odrach Metastasis by Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews (Mosaic Press, 2021) Insightful. thoughtful and timely Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews says in her preface poets are “the antennae of their times”. She is correct and her poems prove it. But they are not optimistic, rather, they come with an outcry against all that is wrong with…
Read MoreReview: Wild Hope: Prayers and Poems by John Terpstra
Reviewed by Carol MacKay Wild Hope: Prayers and Poems by John Terpstra (St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2020) John Terpstra’s book of prayers takes its title from the final line of “The Kind of World We Live in,” the first poem in his collection. This Lenten poem was written pre-COVID-19 but was likely influenced by the…
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