Fulfilling my obligations to my long-neglected TBR one book a time. Want to know why? I explain it in the first post here. Posting striking lines daily on BlueSky

Last week’s post was very short. I didn’t have much to say about the issue of “Poetry” I read and I closed the post with an open and hopeful mind that this week’s book would be more interesting. I am pleased to share that my hopes were realized, greatly with Bren Simmer’s “The Work.”

TLDR review: buy this book. Go. Now. It is so good.

I’m not going to give anything away by talking about the missing vowels on the cover. One of the greatest pleasures in reading poetry is when the pieces fall into place, when you realize what the poet is doing. Bren is a very good poet and she handles her materials here with the deftest of touches. The work to which she refers is work that we all have either had to put in or are about to. These poems are both achingly personal while resonant to the point of being universal. Again, buy this book.

Buy it because not only is the mater of the highest quality, but also because the material, the physical object, is an understated sublime piece of craft in and of itself. You can’t tell from the image below, but the missing vowels are not really missing. They’re still there, pressed into the cover, without ink – a trace, a ghost, the memory of vowels. Nova Scotia’s Gaspereau Press has made a lasting imprint on publishing in Canada with the absolutely impeccable quality of book they put out. From the minimalist design to the weight and tooth of the stock they use, every detail is chosen carefully and perfectly. My goodness they do good work. Again, by this book!

If you follow me over on BlueSky you already know that I post lines I find striking every day as I slowly read through one book or issue each week. Here is a bonus excerpt for you this week from the poem “Load Upon Load”

The pain pooling
under the surface.
All it takes
is an easy task
like filling out
an insurance form

to drown.