“With each volume, Allan Briesmaster’s poetry has further developed its unique form of intensity, a calm, deep-reasoning, formally inventive and precise approach that is the fit home of a true vision. Elsewise ranges through and illuminates many zones of life and knowledge, and all its variety makes its basic and generous ideal clearer.”
—From the Afterword by A.F. Moritz

Allan Briesmaster’s eleventh book is in some ways a culmination, in others an open-ended extension, and in still others a branching-out into new and different poetic terrains. Whether with deceptive simplicity or with elevated density, ironic humour, or an earnest seriousness, these poems invite — and challenge — their readers to think, feel, and imagine “elsewise.”

Elsewise speaks through an introspective voice that is yet fully engaged in the world. From reflections on the past (“Listening Time”) to present-day curiosities (“The Reality App”), plus poems that bear witness to aging (“Older Seasoned”) and illness (“Extending Care”), Allan Briesmaster’s latest poetry collection never loses its contemporary focus. “Equinoctic Concerns,” for instance, considers the changing season as a metaphor for life’s passages, but “Not unlike some good times before — / though the change in the climate / has distended it to a degree that / is both amiable and unsettling.” Here is an eye open to global issues. Technology is also a major concern, even in the title poem which, while focused on “that mirrory pool,” nevertheless asks: “– Who, for part of our part, stole this photo.” Here, the poetic moment of revery acknowledges how we live in a world of technological selves. Invoking the cadences of classic poetry and forms such as the encomium (“The Branching Journey”), Elsewise manages to reinvigorate both. The result is a self-assured, elegant collection.
— Renée M. Sgroi, author of In a Tension of Leaves and Binding

Allan Briesmaster is a freelance literary editor and the publisher of custom-designed poetry books under the Aeolus House imprint. The most recent of his ten previous poetry collections are Windfor (2021) and Later Findings (2024), both from Ekstasis Editions. Allan has read his work, given talks, and hosted and organized poetry events nationwide. He lives in Thornhill, Ontario.