Review of DREAM FRAGMENTS by Mirabel

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…

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Apples and Oranges, Plastic and Screens, Crows on Utility Poles: a review of Fiona Tinwei Lam’s Odes and Laments

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,…

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Meditations on Steffler’s Forty-One Pages

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…

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An Expectation of Enlightenment: walking the Camino

Review of The Way History Dries by Keith Inman Reviewed by John B. Lee       “Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,         And palmers for to seken straunge stronds,         To ferne halwes koweth in sondre londes …”            Lines from ‘The General Prologue” to Canterbury Tales  Geoffrey Chaucer        I first met poet…

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Up North with Gillian Harding-Russell

Cover of In Another Air featuring a crow cawing on a branch

Book review of In Another Air by Gillian Harding Russell Reviewed by Louise Carson Geography. Do we want poems of a geographical nature? Sure we do, especially in Canada, where we grapple with so much of the stuff. And I love geography. One of my fondest memories is of the whole of my Grade 4…

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Of Light: A Review of Jude Neale’s Impromptu

Reviewed by Cynthia Sharp First Published by The Miramichi Reader Jude Neale encouraged me to write with her through National Poetry Month and I caught the fever, her own original prompts the ones that flowed most easily. Like the collage of hearts and stars on the cover, Impromptu is an explosion of everyday love and being.…

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Reflections on Black History Month by Andrea Thompson

I wrote “A Selected History of Soul Speak” in response to a request by Valerie Mason-John and Kevan Anthony Cameron for a poem to be included in their anthology, The Great Black North (Frontenac Press, 2013). In approaching the poem, I saw spoken word in Canada as a kind of ocean – fed by many cultural and creative…

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Fresh Voices 19

Welcome to the nineteenth edition of Fresh Voices, a project from and for the League’s associate members, edited by Joan Conway (Check out her personal blog!) and Blaine Marchand. The League’s associate members are talented poets who are writing and publishing poetry on their way to becoming established professional poets in the Canadian literary community. We…

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