Detailing a point of view that is both contentious and genial—somewhere between the outlooks of Archie Bunker and Dale Peck—the wide-ranging poems in this honest collection ponder questions concerning art, history, and psychology while reveling in the sensory experiences of everyday life. Whether exploring the modus operandi of other writers or paralleling the trajectory of a satellite with a badly ended love affair, these conversational and intellectual poems present a unique voice with a comprehensive worldview.
close this panelDavid Donnell is an award-winning poet whose collections include The Blue Ontario Hemingway Boat Race, China Blues, Dancing in the Dark, Settlements, and Sometimes a Great Notion. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
close this panel"The best poems here are unquestionably great, and it’s good to see this, possibly the largest of Donnell’s poetry collections in some time . . . Donnell’s poems are conversational koans, sometimes meaning nothing, meandering from meaning to meaning, topic to idea, bouncing off, sometimes." —Prairie Fire Review of Books
"[Donnell is] a worldly Epicurean by temperament with a hearty appetite for food, love, the arts and bourgeois pleasures. There’s social comment here, too, but more from the perspective of an editorialist than an activist." —The Toronto Star
"[Donnell is] a worldly Epicurean by temperament with a hearty appetite for food, love, the arts and bourgeois pleasures. There’s social comment here, too, but more from the perspective of an editorialist than an activist." —The Toronto Star
"The best poems here are unquestionably great, and it’s good to see this, possibly the largest of Donnell’s poetry collections in some time . . . Donnell’s poems are conversational koans, sometimes meaning nothing, meandering from meaning to meaning, topic to idea, bouncing off, sometimes." —Prairie Fire Review of Books
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