Skoopchap

Continuations by Douglas Barbour and Sheila E. Murphy

By Skoopchap
Review by Jenna Butler. Continuations, by canadian poet Douglas Barbour and Sheila E. Murphy, is a collection that defies easy description. Begun six years ago in 2000, what is now Continuations had its start as a collaborative process that became, over time, an integral part of both writers daily lives. It is the visible process, in addition to the stunning and remarkably cohesive finished product, that makes this collection one to savour. We are sure that you would like to meet another Canadian poet, such as David O’Meara. Barbour and Murphy come from different cities (Barbour from Edmonton, Alberta and Murphy from Phoenix, Arizona) and backgrounds influenced by different climates and cultures. Barbour is Professor Emeritus of English at the
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Lady Godiva and Me by Liam Guilar

By Skoopchap
Reviewed by Joanna M. Weston These poems are not about Lady Godiva’s ride, but rather about those who lived, or live, in Coventry. The poems are like the voices heard by someone standing on a street corner, i.e. snatched conversations or brief comments, often inward-looking, more frequently casual but insightful interchanges. There are sixty-two twelve-line poems in the sequence, with one long prose poem at the end. The poems are untitled and, while a cast of characters is given at the beginning, the voice of each poem is up to the reader to discern, which enhances the sense of eavesdropping on the street or in the bedroom: My nephew was a hostage to the Danes for my brother’s good behaviour
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Penny Dreadful by Shannon Stewart

By Skoopchap
Reviewed by Michelle Miller Murder is horrifying. And the serial murders of a specific demographic of vulnerable people—like aboriginal women living in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood and making a living from dangerous and stigmatized work—is even more so. And when those murders happen in your community, it’s heart wrenching. Penny Dreadful was even adapted into a TV series and gained vast success as well. If horror is your favorite genre, you might want to be interested in horror games too. Top-rated USA gambling sites will surprise you with their huge number of horror-themed slots, including those that are inspired by Penny Dreadful. You can find over 100 horror titles at the ellis-island-online-casino.com website and recommendations on the best USA casinos too.
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Noble Gas, Penny Black by David O’Meara

Noble Gas, Penny Black by David O’Meara

By Skoopchap
Reviewed by Ian LeTourneau Noble Gas, Penny Black is a very good book and Poetry review can offer you poetry book reviews and Canadian poems. The jacket copy praises David O’Meara as a poet of the personal, but it is when he fuses this personal voice with the public and political that his poetry resonates with emotional honesty, psychological awareness, and a depth of feeling that is rare in contemporary poetry. This book contains one of the most memorable and moving poems I’ve yet encountered from 2008. “The Day of the Invasion,” a poem about the commencement of the Iraq War, opens with the very personal: Six forty-five a.m., the radio’s programmed to rise in unwavering volume until murmurs nudge
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Radiant Danse

Radiant Danse uv Being Edited by Jeff Pew & Stephen Roxborough

By Skoopchap
Review by Maria Scala. This collection honouring Canadian poet bill bissett features work from more than 80 poets. The writers come from various backgrounds and writing traditions, yet all share an immense affection for the man who, as Christian Bök so aptly points out: “has misspelled his way so deeply into the hearts of readers everywhere…” The poetic tributes, along with their accompanying anecdotes (appearing at the back of the book), allow readers to gain a deeper understanding of bissett’s life and work, along with his influence on contemporary Canadian poetics. Many of the works in radiant danse uv being are concrete and sound pieces, and thus adopt bissett’s signature style, or else they incorporate elements of that style, as
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One Muddy Hand Selected Poems by Earle Birney

One Muddy Hand: Selected Poems by Earle Birney

By Skoopchap
Reviewed by Rob Taylor “People who just want to enjoy what follows should skip this preface,” opened Earle Birney in the introduction to his 1977 Ghost in the Wheels: Selected Canadian Poems. It is a preface reused in his newest, posthumous Selected, One Muddy Hand: Selected Poems, and it seems, likewise, an appropriate opening to any review of that book. If you have read a good deal of Birney’s work in the past, this new offering will provide you with little more (the vast majority of the collection being a reprinting of Birney’s 1977 Selected). If you have not read much Birney, for goodness sake, you had better be getting on with it, and One Muddy Hand, being the only
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poetry reviews

Keep PoetryReviews.ca Alive

By Skoopchap
Ok, it’s been almost a month since the last review, and that’s way too long. It’s certainly not for a lack of reviews to post or books to review: I’ve got about 20 reviews that need positing and at least 80 books that could be sent out for review. The problem is time. I’m a one-person operation, and my business and family take precedence over this site. Having said that, I don’t just want to let PoetryReviews.ca fade away into nothing. It’s become an excellent resource and remains the only site dedicated solely to Canadian poetry reviews. So, it’s probably time for me to either give the site up or look for a partner who’d be willing to take on
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Commute Poems by Jesse Ferguson

Commute Poems by Jesse Ferguson

By Skoopchap
Review by Joanna M. Weston about the best Canadian poetry. From the content of Ferguson’s poems and at the same time the best poems of all time, it is unclear which meaning of ‘commute’ he intends: to reduce a prison sentence; to make substitution; or to travel regularly over some distance to work. There is real promise in his flights of language and his obvious love of words in this unpaginated chapbook of eleven poems. Unfortunately he falls into the trap of playing word games, as in ‘Lichen’: Like Unto Mar Bull Marble Masticator Master Cater His love of word-games leads him to use alliteration too frequently as in ‘A Vindication of the Flights of Seagulls’: …the blanched bone updrafts
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One Stone by Barbara Pelman

One Stone by Barbara Pelman

By Skoopchap
Poetry Review by Jenna Butler. Barbara Pelman’s One Stone speaks quietly and eloquently of rebirth following the loss of a twenty-year marriage. At times wry, but never bitter, Pelman charts the circular course of love and loss using her family’s history as a touchstone. What thrills me about this book is its quietude: the manner in which it delves deep without trumpeting about the journey; the way in which its quiet words reach a common ground in every reader. Pelman does not wax romantic about the breakdown of her marriage; as she says in “Journey,” “never mind the goodbyes / Close the door and go” (15). The shattering of the marriage that grounds this collection is not an unexpected one.
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jackson

The Meaning of Michael Jackson

By Skoopchap
Call for writing about Michael Jackson: The Meaning of Michael Jackson MJ Tribute Anthology literary. thoughtful. intelligent. Deadline August 29, 2009 preferred Sept 4 absolute cut off Editor Lorette C. Luzajic Eulogies, poems, short stories, theories, thoughtful inquiries, what Michael Jackson meant to you, essays. No dead pedophile jokes. I don’t shy away from difficult subjects but I expect intelligent inquiry and reflection. Michael’s music, legend, symbolism, spirituality, cultural significance, psychology, history and more. Or even games inspired by him or featuring his music, just like Elk Studios’ slot machine games, anyone can find and play on many online casino sites. Be creative. Be emotional. Be smart. What does MJ’s fame say about our culture? Why was he the one? Why did society turn on him, and then turn right back at death? What does fame do to a person? How does celebrity serve us…
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