Canadian literary legend George Bowering lays bare his process as reader and lover of poetry in this curated collection of poems to be read in the morning.

In a series of deeply astute and conversational essays, two-time Governor General’s Award winner and inaugural Parlimentary Poet Laureate of Canada George Bowering travels through five hundred years, give or take, of English-language literature, adding historical, political, feminist, socio-economic, anecdotal, and literary context to each poem and poet. His selection of poems ranges from the best known to the barely known, each piece treated with depth and reverence, while demonstrating his razor-sharp wit and skill as writer, critic, and reader.

Recalling the work of George Saunders and Sina Queyras, in their interactions with established literature, George’s insight in the poetic mind is invaluable, making this is must-read collection for anyone interested in reading or writing poetry.

George Bowering, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, was born in the Okanagan Valley.After serving as an aerial photographer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Bowering earned a BA in English and an MA in history at the University of British Columbia, where he became one of the co-founders of the avant-garde poetry magazine TISH. He has taught literature at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario, and Simon Fraser University, and he continues to act as a Canadian literary ambassador at international conferences and readings.A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian, and tireless supporter of fellow writers, Bowering has authored more than eighty books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography, and youth fiction. His writing has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and Romanian.Bowering has twice won the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s top literary prize. In 2019 he received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia.

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Praise for Good Morning Poems

“Bowering the reader of poems returns us to a place of wonder and mystery—with no irritable reaching after fact and reason—as though every poem is the first poem ever read—a cypher, a delight, a breathing of new life into the world. More than a mere anthology of favourite poems, or a retired professors final words on the greats, Bowering here gives us a slice of daily life where the living has been in through and with poems that have been intimate and steadfast companions for decades. The attention is exquisite.”

—Stephen Collis, author of A History of the Theory of Rain

“What a great way to start the day. Good morning, poetry. Bowering torques Gertrude Stein’s note on “History teaches” to “Let me recite what poetry teaches. Poetry teaches”. The familiarity of the poems themselves is a treat but to revisit them alongside an intelligent poetic and critical skill is like getting a croissant with your coffee. As he has lived in writing for most of his life, Bowering inhabits the English poetic canon with great care and attention. Thankfully his pleasure of the poem embellishes our own so that the music of words sets the day ahead full of imagination.”

—Fred Wah, award-winning author of Music at the Heart of Thinking and Faking It: Poetics & Hybridity

“George Bowering’s title Good Morning Poems, can be variously read – as a greeting to historic poems, as poems from centuries-ago mornings that are “good,” and as poems that welcome you to today. These seem to be poems which have been welcoming Bowering for quite a while, from “Back in the mists of time when I was a university English student.” Yet overall his selections and one-page commentaries approach current expectations for race and gender diversity – one of numerous surprises he can find for us in these still welcoming lyrics.”

—Frank Davey, award-winning author of Poems Suitable to Current Material Conditions, and aka bpNichol: a preliminary biography

“I am not a morning person. I am, though, a George Bowering person -- and this neat little book gives readers access not only to Bowering the writer, but to George the mentor, teacher, and language-drunk friend, dizzy with all the possibilities of words, phrases, sentences, images, allusions, metaphors, assonances, and rhymes. Here he is in all of his infectious enthusiasm for some of the finest poetry ever written in English. I can’t imagine a better guide.”

—Charles Demers, author of Property Values