Books 26 to 34: The Dektet 9
Calgary publisher Frontenac House has just published Dektet 2010, 10 books of poetry to celebrate their 10th anniversary as a press. Included in the 10 is my first book of poetry, [sic], so I figured I’d better get to reading the other 9 in the series!
Reading through the 9 other books been an interesting exercise for me: my book has certain lyrical and narrative impulses, which I believe I’ve tried to interrogate from a feminist/class conscious perspective, however on the whole I don’t read too much lyrical / narrative poetry, with the exception of early-21st century, post-lyric lyrics (see my read of Jen Currin’s The Inquisition Yours for an example). My newer work ([sic] was written from 2000-2007) has moved mostly away from the lyric as a unit of composition, though I do continue to explore narrativity in my poetry.
(Nor would I say that all 9 belong to the same strain of lyricism, btw.)
Various thematic or imagistic concerns repeat across the collection. This is Canada, after all, and we are always bound by and writing through the weather. Also dead birds. Elegies. Scientific/biologic language. Identity/subjectivity. Romance. Grief.
Book 26: White Shirt by Laurie MacFayden
Lesbian troubadour poems that explore sex and relationships, artistic practice and poetic voice.
Book 27: Ex Nihiloby Adebe D.A.
Poems about identity, race, New York City. Incantatory in the shamanic tradition of poets such as Amiria Baraka and Anne Waldman.
Book 28: Fallacies of Motionby William Nichols
Lyric explorations of life written over 40 years. The motion gets going on page 82 in the title section. At times Kroetschian lyrical reportage of birds, cats, landscapes, the weather.
Book 29: Standoff Terrainby Jocko Benoit
Standard love poetry in the traditional romantic vein, inspired by Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. I had a bit of a problem with some of this book: the poet uses the terms “love” when I believe he means “seduction” and I find the characterizations of women in these love-as-battlefield poems to be sometimes problematic.
Book 30: Attenuations of Force by Lori Cayer
Lyrical elegies on a dead pigeon and a dead father set against evocations of the beautiful, terrible prairie wind. Cayer has some great titles, like “Lateral stress changes: a regression model” or “Escalationdance: Incidents in Disorderly Chapters.”
Book 31: Falling Blues by Jannie Edwards
Poems that chart various kinds of falling. Edwards picks up and plays with The Blues as trope, sets it down, comes back to it later. She also writes on the ravages of late capitalism & media (as do I) and on familial heritage and terrible winds.
Book 32: Learning to Count by Douglas Burnet Smith
Self-aware long lyric lines, internal rhythm, digression and allusion, awareness of multiplicities of history as the poet charts a trip from Tuscany to Corsica and back to Canada. Formally reminded me of Robin Blaser. I am rather fond of the “Lizard Suite (Corsican Dithyramb)” poems at the end of the book.
Book 33: Children of Ararat by Keith Garebian
Keith Garebian poetically marks his own familial legacy: the Armenian genocide, juxtaposed with the denial of the Armenian genocide. Explores the double brutality and horror of the original event against the suffering of the survivors. Best read after watching Egoyan’s Ararat, as I did recently.
Book 34: Confessions of an Empty Purse by S. McDonald
A “poetic transmemoir,” delving into dreams, fantasies, transformation, passing and grief, with icons of femininity making cameo appearances.
-Nikki
