Paul Vermeersch is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Between the Walls (McClelland & Stewart, 2005). He lives in Toronto.
Elegy for Paul Winchell
Which is more alive? A tiger at its kill,
or a child's plush tiger, or a child's plush tiger
in a storybook, or a illustration
of a child's plush tiger in a storybook?
"Why, I am, of course," says an illustration
of a child's plush tiger in a storybook.
Can one improve on the love of Geppetto?
Can one succeed where the Great Oz failed?
Which is more alive? A heart that aches
and races, or an artificial heart?
"They are equal," says the little
wooden man. "They are equal."
Ten years ago we worked together at Chapters, and here we are in 2007, both of us with first books published this year. Aside from feeling I'm getting on a bit, I remember a poem of yours where you talk about carrying around The Collected Works of Billy the Kid on your back as though "an extra muscle"; did it help inspire this collection about another historical figure?
Yes, I remember that old poem, too. And, yeah, you're right: Ondaatje's early work made a big impression on me back when I was a wide-eyed, and under-read undergraduate student. I'd never heard of an author re-shuffling or re-inventing history, and had never read a contemporary longpoem before. I'd also never seen an author approach historiography or history as...continue reading
Gleaned from his four previous collections and garnished with more than a dozen new poems, Todd Swift's 'Seaway' is both a 'greatest hits' collection for those who've already read this verbally athletic Canadian-born poet at length and a comprehensive introduction for those on the European side of the Atlantic who have had, so far, only the occasional chance to get a taste of his work at the jostling, competitive buffet known as English language poetry. As such, it is long overdue. Swift, after all, has been a tireless champion of a distinctively cosmopolitan, open-minded, post-modernist strand of contemporary writing for quite some time and his work as an editor and ferociously scrupulous blogger in Budapest, Paris and, latterly, London has all too frequently occluded his reputation as a poet with a singular ability to be simultaneously learned, playful and profound...continue reading