Many poets, hungry for a readership that extends beyond family, friends, and other poets, eventually take a run at writing fiction. Fewer novelists go the other way and make a detour into verse. That makes Darryl Whetter’s debut collection something of an oddity. Whetter, a professor of English at Nova Scotia’s Université Sainte-Anne, has two works of fiction under his belt: a novel (The Push and the Pull) and a story collection (A Sharp Tooth in the Fur). But Origins is not the product of a whim – it’s clear these poems were written out of urgent necessity.

Origins is divided into two sections, “The Part” and “The Counterpart,” an idea borrowed from evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, who provides the book’s epigraph. In Gould’s formulation, a found fossil is the part, and the impression left by a long-dead organism is the counterpart.

In Whetter’s collection, “The Part” explores notions of evolution, ruin, and regeneration, with a particular focus on human resistance to change and discovery. “Joggins for years just a billboard / and a staircase. billion-kissed fossils / pilfered by the bucketful while / local school kids / coloured photocopies / of Johnny Appleseed.” So says “Fossils,” about the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in the Bay of Fundy, now regarded as the most complete record of life in the Coal Age. There’s nothing ornamental in these spare lines: every word is weighted, and the enjambment forces the reader to pause and evaluate the foolishness of the scene.

The collection’s second part examines the more recent history of Joggins and its inhabitants. The scathing “Privileged Young Men Who Hate Creativity” is a standout. Whetter’s critical eye is felt throughout, but no other poem hits this hard: “yuksters in dialled baseball caps / with their TSN, bright sneakers and cheap / pens twirled over stubby fingers. / an aversion to cunnilingus so total / they don’t even notice / Saturday night Jenn rolling her pelvis up.” Such unabashed aggression is so refreshing that a reader can’t help but hope Whetter stays on this poetic detour.