What is most striking about Dennis Lee’s latest volume – a collection of essays about poetry and poets – is that it’s poetic in its execution of language and expression of ideas. Body Music is much like its title – music for the body and soul.

All 11 of the pieces in this three-part exploration have been previously published or given as papers at conferences, and all have been revised since they appeared in their original forms. In “Cadence, Country, Silence,” poet and children’s writer Lee examines these three subjects and the role each plays in his creative process. “What am I doing when I write?” is the question he asks, and this essay, as well as others in the collection, lead him to draw conclusions. “Listening to a luminous tumble, a sort of taut cascade,” is how he describes cadence, for which he listens constantly. Lee then points out that space and place in the poetic identity are determined by culture, by land, hence, by one’s country. And finally, cadence often finds itself in mere silence – thus, in dissecting the rhythm of poetry, Lee attempts to isolate its genesis.

The playfulness of language, the literal rhyme behind the reason of the nursery rhyme – Lee examines these in “Roots and Play.” He posits that for children, the nonsensical is exotic and that one can only write this kind of verse successfully if one writes “as children” rather than for children. Here, Lee not only examines his own impetus and his own techniques, but also explores and pays tribute to the work of other influential poets including Al Purdy, Bronwen Wallace, Judy Merril, Gaston Miron, and George Grant.

Lee writes with sensitivity and insight about subjects that have eluded him during his career. And in the transcribed interviews in the third section of the book, we see that sensitivity and insight come alive in conversation. In Body Music, Lee not only shares the essence of himself, he renders more accessible the often complex world of poetry to both the amateur and the expert.