CV2 Contemporary Verse – Winter 2006

“The memory is merely a summary/of the last time I remembered it,” writes Michael Penny in his wonderful poem, “In Memory.” Memory is the theme of the issue, which, among a collection of poems worth remembering, includes interviews with poets Aislinn Hunter, Laurie Block, and Doug Nepinak. I was unfamiliar with many of the poets here, most of whom have published primarily in Canadian journals, and I was happy to be introduced to their strong, original work. “The memory is merely a summary/of the last time I remembered it,” writes Michael Penny in his wonderful poem, “In Memory.” Memory is the theme of the issue, which, among a collection of poems worth remembering, includes interviews with poets Aislinn Hunter, Laurie Block, and Doug Nepinak. I was unfamiliar with many of the poets here, most of whom have published primarily in Canadian journals, and I was happy to be introduced to their strong, original work. Poems that will certainly remain in my memory, include “First Door on the Left” by Laurie Bloc and the finely etched work of Aislinn Hunter in “Attempts to Know the Present,” excerpted here:

                        All day, matter drifts
G. and I in the piazza under the bright
               of an afternoon,

under the stuttering light of an oak tree.

A kineograph that becomes a
             lowering a bucket down four storeys
to her sister on the street below.

That delicate hand-over-hand
             whole minutes winnowed into meanwhile,
the bucket’s sway, its litter of fine white eggs,

             bright pinions of during.

Whole days spend searching for a point of
             a letter-hedged now,
the corded seam of a book, the clasp

that holds the
            the middle note in last night’s concerto,
and that note’s own dark quaver,

                        the brown of an unremarkable door.

David McLeod’s interview with Doug Nepinak makes for extremely satisfying reading. Nepinak is smart, frank, and clear-headed: “…we live in a racist society. How else could you possibly talk about a “racist society, except in racist terms?” His insights about the writing of First Nations people and the story of his own development as a writer make this one of the strongest features of the issue. Finally, I also loved the excerpts of Michael Trussler’s “Remember the Twentieth Century.” We’ve only got a part of the century here. I am eager to read the rest. [CV2, 207-100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 1H3, Canada. Single issue: $7. www.contemporaryverse2.ca] —Sima Rabinowitz