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The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry

by Mark Callanan and James Langer, eds.

Newfoundland is made of poetry. Its hard-luck weather, resilient humanity, and far-flung geography moved the pen of E.J. Pratt, whom the London Times called “by far the most considerable of Canadian writers of [the 20th] century.” Since Pratt’s death in 1964, a new wave of poetry has risen from the fog banks.

As they explain in their editors’ note to The Breakwater Book of Contemporary Newfoundland Poetry, Mark Callanan and James Langer have assembled an illuminating anthology of post-Pratt poets “who developed – either by birth or residence – a strong relationship with the island of Newfoundland prior to the publication of their first full-length collection of poetry.”

Early work from Al Pittman – including “The Border,” “Homecoming,” and “Gram Glover’s Dream” – portrays the province’s bleak yet otherworldly qualities. Tom Dawe’s “Abandoned Outport” depicts the desolate fate of many once-thriving rural communities. Two poems by John Steffler employ field notes from one man’s pilgrimage to Newfoundland’s northern peninsula. 

Mary Dalton’s poem “Janneying” tinkers with the Newfoundland Christmastime tradition of mummering, also dubbed janneying, wherein people dress up in disguises and roam from house to house in a neighbourhood dancing a jig or telling a story in exchange for a visit and a drink. “We’d rig ourselves up in any old fit-out,” the poet writes, “Pillows and nets, cotton drawers on our heads.”

Michael Crummey’s stunning poems “Artifacts,” “Fox on the Funk Islands,” and “Keel” pay homage, respectively, to rural life, the uniqueness of the island, and fishermen. Agnes Walsh’s  “The Time That Passes” explores the weight of silence between a mother and daughter. Ken Babstock’s “The Minds of Higher Animals” cycles through existentialism, alcoholism, and art’s inadequacies.

Sue Sinclair’s “Collar Bones” embodies the ethereal, asking the question: “why do they make us think / of birds, the spreading of wings?” Sinclair’s poetic philosophy fuses language, heart, and thought, and her relationship to the ocean – in “Breaker” and “Breakwater” – invites the reader to pause and contemplate. “Breakwater” takes us into the depths of ourselves, “looking for answers, looking for silence, / a moment to think through our lives / before they’re lost.”

Each poet in this anthology grapples with the extremes of Newfoundland, and captures the spirit of a place unlike anywhere else.

 

Reviewer: Shannon Webb-Campbell

Publisher: Breakwater Books

DETAILS

Price: $19.95

Page Count: 216 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-1-55081-408-8,

Released: April

Issue Date: 2013-7

Categories: Poetry