reviewed by Bob MacKenzie. In firmly holding onto the desire to love and cherish one another we keep faith with many who have gone before us, by honouring those we have lost. —“Forged in Fire” Many poems are written to be engraved into the texture of paper, inked black shadows of what the poet means…

Reviewed by Louise Carson. I’d seen a documentary about this woman, a Chicago nanny, born 1926, died 2009, who never seemed to want to display her work, but who saved much of it. It was found after her death. But I’d forgotten about her until reading the preface to Bruce Rice’s latest poetry collection. Oh,…

by Penn Kemp. The Words Festival has been one of London ON’s liveliest cultural events, presented annually since 2014. But this year, “WordsFest.ca 2020 was presented online in the belief communities need the transformative power of the literary and creative arts now more than ever.” Through Zoom, the event reached an online audience with an…

Reviewed by Catherine Morrison DREAM FRAGMENTS is an incredible collection of poems that bring readers into her mind, experiencing the vibrant and intimate thoughts she experiences in her sleep. A reflection of self, of history, and future, Mirabel’s poems are extremely approachable, allowing readers to connect to a thought or theme as they turn every…

Reviewed by Marguerite Pigeon. In her last collection, Blue Sonoma (Brick Books, 2014), Jane Munro used dreamscapes and reportage as paper and pen to trace jagged contours of meaning during her husband’s dementia and death. Those poems were sober, plainspoken—and won Munro a Griffin Poetry Prize. Six years later, Munro is back with Glass Float…

Reviewed by Kate Marshall Flaherty Swoon by Elana Wolff. Guernica Editions, 2020, 94 pp, ISBN 978-1-77183-507-7 Elana Wolff explores the many layers of ecstasy and everyday-ness in her powerful collection of poems, Swoon. In her epigraphs, Wolff depicts swooning as the physical manifestation of an emotional moment in time, as in falling, fainting, “awakening,” a…

Reviewed by Louise Carson. Straddling the Third Wall: A review of footlights by Pearl Pirie, Radiant Press, Regina, 2020. Hide-dingle. (Word marriage.) Dictionary, dictionary. Hide’s nuances I’m pretty well up on – a poet hiding in a poem; skin as hide; a place from which to observe others – dingle’s, not so sure, though it’s…

Reviewed by Crystal Hurdle Lam’s third poetry collection, Odes and Laments, surprisingly sweet, offers an equal measure of elegies and odes, sometimes in the same poem.  The opener, “Libation,” concludes, “What’s held within/this cup, this poem, this juice/I offer you.”  The poem could be container or contents, and what does it matter?  Everything IS all apples and oranges, literally,…

Review of Forty-One Pages: On Poetry, Language and Wilderness by John Steffler Reviewed by Antony Di Nardo In his latest book, Forty-One Pages: On Poetry, Language and Wilderness, a collection of forty-one anecdotal essays and a handful of poems, John Steffler defies you to draw a dividing line between poetry and prose, language and wilderness,…

Reviewed by Patrick Connors Gavin Barrett lives a life with many layers of creativity. Much of his service to poetry is organizational, such as in curating the Tartan Turban Secret Readings, a series which prides itself on diversity and providing opportunity to visible minorities. However, his writing has also garnered suitable attention, and Mawenzi House…