“Homage to Happiness”
by Judith Krause
Published by Hagios Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$17.95
ISBN 978-1-926710-29-7
In her fifth collection, Homage to Happiness, Saskatchewan Poet
Laureate Judith Krause integrates a multitude of subjects and voices to create
a savoury feast of poems. The Regina poet throws her pen’s light on insomnia,
family, horses, Regina (a long poem, “Cathedral Village,” is dedicated to that
enviable neighbourhood), travel, love, poets, science projects, news items, the
hourglass, the number 13, food (poems include “Gingerbread” and “Chili
Tomatoes”), and much more. Discovering the surprise of where she’ll go next is
half the pleasure of this book, which features a cover painting by William
Perehudoff against a “happy” yellow background.
The Acknowledgements reveal that the life story of SK-born abstract
expressionist painter Agnes Martin inspired some of the work; I admire those
writers like Krause who can take on another’s persona and get so deeply “inside”
that they make readers believe they’re engaging directly with the subject.
In the long title poem, Krause gives us both a literal and interior
portrayal of the artist, Martin. She writes: “my large hands\at ease, hanging
over\the ends of the armrests, as exotic\as two bunches of bananas” and, in
this same sequence we find these lines [included here sans stanza breaks] of relatable brilliance: “I know the
subtleties\of clear bright light. I know\the draw of clean air.\This is why we
cross\a deserted beach\to stare at the ocean\or why we sit for hours\on the top
of a hill\with the wind in our hair.\There are only two directions:\in and out.”
Another of this accomplished writer’s talents is knowing when, and how,
to end a poem. In a piece titled “Rules for Falling in Love,” she writes about
there being no rules in the game of love, and about “the inevitable\periods of
sadness” that accompany love. She finishes like this: “You will recover.\Now
tell me\the story of\how you met.” I love that returning, which for me harkens back
to the book’s title: it seems to say that yes, in life there will be good
helpings of joy, regret and sorrow; focus on the joy. This heartening sentiment
is reiterated in the closing poem, “How You Reach the Sea.”
A sense of regret is evident in
the short poem “I Wanted to See the World,” in which the narrator expresses
dreams of travel (“Maps hung on the wall over my childhood\bed”) but “time ran
out and wave after wave\swallowed everything in sight.”
Certain images leapt off the pages of this collection, ie: it was lovely
to read about (and see) the pastured horses, with “the theater\of their rubber
lips” (“Watching the Horses on Old Orchard Road”) and, to imagine (in “Ode to
Discards”) the “faded denim of my mother’s eyes”.
Sometimes—or perhaps often—with poetry, the simple is the most effective.
“Sunshower Flowering Tea” details the unfolding of colourful tea leaves in a
glass teapot. The simplicity and clarity of this experience—and the impact of
poetry—is summed up in moments “that hold us still\for the time it takes\to be
reborn”. Judith Krause, I well-enjoyed your meal.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
____________________________
“We’re Already Home”
by Terry Jordan, Lorna Tureski, Arnie
Hayashi
Published by Wild Sage Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$18.00
ISBN 978-0-9881229-7-0
Written collaboratively by Saskatchewan’s multi-talented Terry Jordan
(who served as dramaturge and, interestingly, also created the book’s collaged cover
art), and BC residents Lorna Tureski and Arnie Hayashi, the realistic play was
created by the Interfaith Bridging Project in Vernon with a literary goal of
connecting characters “to create story in a meaningful way,” and a social goal
of connecting people of different communities and faiths “with imagination,
understanding and tolerance.”
This play works on several levels. On the one hand it is a realistic
representation of two Canadian families, each with a 17-year-old teenager, and
how seemingly small matters—like a leaf and shoot-spreading chestnut tree—can irk one person and provide joy for
another, but numerous well-placed metaphors and a sprightly “Senklip/Coyote
trickster spirit” character, Violet, lift the story beyond realism and give it
a multi-textured dynamic. The timeless Violet also serves as comic relief, ie:
sweeping the offending chestnut leaves back and forth between the neighbours,
and quipping gems like her admission that she’s a member of the church “Our Lady of Fur-till-i-tee.”
The central characters include MS-afflicted Roy Gibbons, a former
seminarian who “wound up delivering the mail,” and whom the neighbours view as
a spying busybody from his second floor perch, and his open-hearted wife, Ruth,
who is keen to learn about the culture and traditions of their neighbours, Ali,
Aisha and Sila Ahmed. When Ruth delivers a chicken meal to the Ahmeds and Aisha
later confesses, somewhat worriedly, that they didn’t eat it, both because it
was Ramadan and because the food was not “halal,”
Ruth says, “You couldn’t offend me with a stick.”
The sweet interaction between the teens is especially interesting, as it
effectively demonstrates romantic attraction (Jacob has a crush on Sila), and
how tricky it can be to bridge cultural differences. When Jacob walks too
closely behind Sila on the route home from school, she says “you can’t come any
closer because I am a Muslim girl and it’s not proper for me to be alone with a
boy.” She explains why she can’t accept the granola bar he offers, and he
notices how her hijab makes her eyes “pop”. Jacob challenges his judgmental
father, who at one point calls his son “Mister Muslimwannabe”.
I appreciated Ali’s charming hobby of collecting air from various parts
of the world and preserving it in glass jars. He says that they’re “history,
family, honour to Mohammed (Praise be upon Him)”. The writers effectively gave
the characters multiple dimensions, ie: when Ruth is talking to Violet about
Roy, she remembers when he wore “Levis and a white t-shirt, very Bruce
Springsteen.”
Apparently it was a full house for the play’s opening night: 250 seats
filled, and 250 minds and hearts enriched by a play that both entertains and
informs, with “imagination, understanding, and tolerance.” I wish I could have
been in that theatre.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
“Bone, Fog, Ash & Star”
by Catherine Egan
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$12.95
ISBN 9-781550-505931
Imagine a world in which “every
stone and every tree has secrets to tell.” Where dragons, Faeries and great
birds called “gryphons” are commonplace, and one has to be granted a permit to
have a child. In this fantastical universe some have the ability to create
protection “barriers” when trouble arises. Invisibility is possible, as is
shapeshifting, and the manipulation of the elements. Potions are made from “the
spinal juice of a Tian Xia invisible eel,” and the Thanatosi—strange, faceless,
acrobatic beings called upon by Great Magic to serve as assassins—are a very
real threat.
As a writer who deals in realistic fiction, I have often wondered about
my literary cousins who pen fantasy and science fiction. For me it would be
intensely arduous to fabricate mythical geographies, beings, creatures, and names,
thus I appreciate those writers who have the ability to stretch their
imaginations in such far-flung directions and create these otherworldly novels.
What a gift.
Last fall Saskatchewan’s Coteau Books released Bone, Fog, Ash & Star, the third book in Catherine Egan’s
trilogy The Last Days of Tian Di. The
star of the story, sixteen-year-old Eliza Tok, is both Sorceress and human; her
father is a Sorba (desert-dweller in the Great Sand Sea), and her mother “an
unusually powerful and rebellious” Sorceress. As the book opens, Eliza is
trying her best to change into a raven: these are her spirit birds\protectors:
“She could see what they saw, not with her eyes but somewhere in her mind.”
We learn that Eliza is studying magic with Foss, a Mancer and
Spellmaster who is expected to bring the girl back from the world of Di Shang (“ruled
predominantly by the laws of nature” to the world of Tian Xi (where “the very
land and air … seemed to thrum with Magic”). Foss is a benevolent character charting
the separation of the two worlds. He tells Eliza that “The life of a Sorceress
is perpetual struggle … With forces both external and internal.” The girl needs
no telling; she lives it every day.
For this realist, the most interesting aspect of this fantasy is the synchronicities
between the “real” and the “unreal.” For example, both Eliza and her studious best
friend, Nell, have teenaged crushes. Egan does a fine job of revealing this
youthful attraction via passages like the following, which demonstrates how
Eliza feels about her love interest, Charlie: “Lately she found it hard to look
at him without her heart quickening, and when flying with him the joy was less
in the flight than in the excuse to put her arms around him.” It’s so human (except for the flying on his
gryphon back!), and for me, it is a large part of what propels this richly cast
story.
Charlie plays a major role in the 308-page novel, and is one of many
who, interestingly, speak with a Scottish lilt: “didnae,” “aye,” “nay,” “Lah,” and
“couldnay,” are peppered throughout the dialogue, and I smiled at how often
expressions like “Oh, thank [or blast] the Ancients!” appear.
Egan incorporates much poetry into her
text, ie: the character Aysu has “eyes like dying stars,” and at one point
Eliza “slid like a tear from an eye into the earth, and the earth was made of
slumbering bodies.”
The Vancouver-born author currently lives in Connecticut. To learn more
about her or this fascinating trilogy, see her website at
www.catherineegan.com.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
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