Noelle Schmidt’s debut collection of 44 poems, Claimings and Other Wild Things, is a brave and tender exploration of personal struggle and identity. The title borrows from one of the longer poems, “Claimings”, an ambitious memoir poem about growing up and feeling unable to claim space in the world. For Schmidt, poetry offers a means to reclaim this space and grapple with everyday wild things like depression, grief, and suicide. But these untamed (and sometimes challenging) stories are accompanied with—in Schmidt’s own words—“… always, always, a little bit of hope”. As author and essayist Sydn ..read more

The cover art on Karen Enns’s fourth book of poetry, Dislocations, displays tree roots, emblematic of rhizome rooting and spreading throughout the collection. With the help of Jan Zwicky’s comment about Enns’s “extraordinary ear,” the reader listens to her “exquisite sculpting of silence” – the silent sculpture of roots and rhizomes, neurons relocating and re-collecting.             The first poem, “Tanner Ridge,” resembles the repetitions in a Michael Snow film, as Enns wends her way through a dominance of monosyllables from diminishing ..read more

George Bowering’s book Good Morning Poems delights, inspires, and educates the reader who not only enjoys reading poetry but also wants to learn more about its form and what makes a poem outstanding. The poems of the English-language poets Bowering has selected for comment cover five hundred years, beginning with They Flee from Me by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and ending with The Hid, Here by Margaret Avison. Though I’ve written poetry, published a few, and attended poetry workshops, I felt I was wading into foreign territory, but one I wanted to visit again and again. Bowering, through his ..read more

Maara Haas’s lines                                  “why                                 isn’t                                 &n ..read more

A Grief Cave by Ben Gallagher is a tender and probing examination of the landscape of grief. The collection spurs from the sudden death of Gallagher’s partner a decade ago, and deftly picks its way through life after loss. Through his poems and final essay, Gallagher is unrelenting in his exploration of sadness, but also, one of the lesser communicated emotions of grief: anger.  The last stanzas of his opening poem, “Looking for the Invisible” read: I have a face not my own This is how Zoe watches No need to remember for her sake later she is inside my eyes Memory a way to be again where ..read more

I was drawn to this collection entirely because of its fabulous title: Brat. Such a glorious word – one often used in anger, but reclaimed here, using it to toss back at all those who would lob it. I have a friend who lovingly calls me “brat,” in the same spirit as Crocker uses for this collection: a bold, brave way to describe the acts of reclaiming space for yourself. “Crocker’s poems in this collection are playful and brash, as well as sensitive and yearning.” Crocker’s poems in this collection are playful and brash, as well as sensitive and yearning. Brat is unapologetic, the kind of poe ..read more

Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees is an ode to the beauty of trees, a lament for what humans are doing to the planet, and a song of defiance. The poems in this collection articulate our sisterhood with trees and other living things, as well as capturing the beauty and mystery of trees and forests. Most of the poems are free verse, but the collection also includes haiku sequences, senryu, prose poems, a few rhyming ventures, and even an abecedarian. The variety of styles keeps things interesting. The book is divided into four sections: Connection, Ecology, Grief, and ..read more

In Hypatia’s Wake, Susan Andrews Grace provides a deeper look at the Egyptian Neo-platonic philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician Hypatia of Alexander. Hypatia, who lived from 355-415 CE, has been credited as being the first female mathematician, and has had many students who admired and respected her. However, she fell victim to political jealousy, and around age 60, she was brutally murdered. Some of the poems are prefaced by excerpts from letters written to Hypatia from Synesius, one of her students. Others are kicked off with reference to historical writings, like Euclid’s theories, o ..read more

I started reading this collection of poetry by Kamal Parmar mid-morning, in the aftermath of a snowstorm. The snow was still falling gently outside, and I was seeking to delay my shovelling by tucking in with a slim collection of poetry. Enter Just Passing By, Parmar’s most recent collection of poetry, this time focused on nature, and images of the west coast of Canada, where she lives and writes. This was the right choice: the poems which detail different scenes throughout the seasons of the year were the perfect accompaniment to a day being reminded of the power of nature. Parmar’s poems in ..read more

In the uncertainty of our times, Ann Elizabeth Carson’s new book, Loose Ends, with its evocative poetry and prose, manages to ground the reader in a place of reflection and appreciation for the wonders of life. As Carson describes her relationship and synchronicity with nature, readers will feel their own senses being nurtured.  The book opens with “The Risk of Remembrance,” introducing the poet and her state of being at 93, contemplating the realities of existence and the risk of diving into memories. She affirms that as long as the magic of nature stirs her senses, rendering ..read more