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The poems
in Windfor invite readers to explore three broad areas of concern
that are at once intimate and universal. The first section presents pivotal
episodes from early childhood through late middle age. Autobiographic
elements interweave with motifs of travel and restless motion. The second
section anxiously examines personal relationships that will sometimes
give gifts of dissonance, further complicated by the dilemma of those
who chafe at the wide harm of a globalized technocratic culture. The third
section fondly immerses in outdoor scenes, shadowed by the awareness of
markets oblivious to a climate out-of-kilter. Throughout the book, an
ingenious use of varied forms and styles lends vitality to an abundance
of ideas and metaphors.
Written by a poet who refuses to be cynical, who stubbornly clings
to the sense of awe and wonder he has possessed since youth, Windfor
deals with a lifelong engagement with the sublime and the many journeys
that ensue when one moves forever in the direction of the unknown. Full
of finely constructed poems all richly textured with sound and meaning,
Windfor is a table laden with verbal delicacies at a feast where life
and all its beautiful immensities are celebrated.
– Luciano Iacobelli, author of The Examined Life and Dolor
Midnight
A questing and questioning imagination takes on the plights and challenges
of ageing, rapid change and planetary collapse, with no shortage of
linguistic energy, determined to “never cease to care / for what could
come when one’s no longer there.” For all that, Windfor is a breath
of fresh air.
– Gary Geddes, author of What Does A House Want? and The
Resumption of Play
Allan Briesmaster is a freelance editor and publisher. He was a founding
partner in Quattro Books and currently runs his own literary press, Aeolus
House. He is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently The
Long Bond: Selected and New Poems (Guernica Editions, 2019), and
he has read his work, given talks, and hosted literary events across Canada.
He lives in Thornhill, Ontario.
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