by prfire | Apr 9, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Growing up in rural Ontario, I was surrounded by parents and siblings but gravitated to the elderly, a grandmother and aunts and uncles, but especially the women, fascinated by the stories they had to tell, awed by the humour and wisdom they imparted. When I...
by prfire | Mar 16, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
People and landscapes inhabit our memory but when we want to recall them it can be difficult; we must either pull at them or ask someone, or rely on written records. And it is so with family. What do we remember of our grandmothers and grandfathers or of our...
by prfire | Feb 6, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
I began reading Ariel Gordon’s Treed a day or two before October’s unseasonal and devastating storm. This storm, which dropped heavy wet snow all over Manitoba, had an immediate and destructive impact on our trees, trees that had been coming to life for me in...
by prfire | Jan 28, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Intensely political and personal, Katherena Vermette’s second book of poems, river woman, achieves the impact and appeal of the great Canadian singer-songwriters while exploring what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a river. Under her consideration, this...
by prfire | Jan 6, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
As I write this review from Halifax, a yellow crane lays crumpled at one of the city’s busiest intersections. Toppled over during September’s post-tropical Hurricane Dorian, the crane has remained lodged in the side of a downtown high-rise, looking at times...
by prfire | Nov 18, 2019 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Reading Mary Barnes’ poetry collection, What Fox Knew, is a fascinating journey. It is epic in scope, delightfully composed, and rich in detail. Set in the Southern Georgian Bay area, the characters and their chronicles reveal a deep past of First Nations peoples...
