Quill and Quire

Poetry

Selected Poems: 1978-1997

By Patrick Lane

In this 20-year retrospective of Patrick Lane’s work, readers are given a selection that tends toward sentimental morbidity at its most poetic. While he is celebrated for his pioneering work in West Coast poetry circles ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

A Broken Bowl

By Patrick Friesen

As the end of the millennium approaches, where will serious Canadian writers position themselves in the coming mass-media onslaught of predictions and summations? With his new book, Manitoba’s Patrick Friesen places himself firmly in the apocalyptic ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

Invisible to Predators

By R.M. Vaughan

A candid celebration of homosexual love is the predominant theme of Toronto-based poet R.M. Vaughan’s latest collection.Vaughan delves into all aspects of romantic and physical love, from awkward courtship rituals to carnal pleasures. There is ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

News & Smoke

By Sharon Thesen

Asking a poet to explain his or her work may result in inscrutable mumbling, a beery confession, or stony silence. And then there’s Sharon Thesen, whose introduction to News & Smoke is one of the ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

Mining for Sun

By John Reibetanz

Some volumes of poetry offer bold innovation, while others do the work of careful consolidation. Toronto poet John Reibetanz’s fourth collection of poems, Mining for Sun, is a sterling example of the second kind of ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

The Wireless Room

By Shane Rhodes

It’s clear from reading Tim Bowling’s third collection, The Thin Smoke of the Heart, that he is a poet of rare talent. His wording is musical. His rhythms are subtle but unfaltering. He turns a ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

The Border Surrounds Us

By Karen Connelly

In The Border Surrounds Us, her fourth book of poetry, Karen Connelly has found a subject that coheres perfectly with the thrust of her poetic imagination. Her new work testifies more clearly than ever to ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

His Life: A Poem

By George Bowering

On the surface it seems so simple: His Life, the new book by two-time Governor General’s Award-winner George Bowering, is a poetic memoir, a book-length poem drawn from over 30 years of journal entries. Almost ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry