Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol. 1 Illus. Ed. dares to go where no book of Canadian poetry has gone before; deep into the heart of darkness epitomized by the idea of the Great White North. Except white is not dark. And the heart thing was a bit overused even by the time Conrad got around to it. In any case, recalling the fundamental elements of the Canadian struggle for identity, when he can recall anything at all, Michael Boughn takes his few, select readers on a tour through the midden heap of Canadian culture that turns into a unique confrontation with the profound questions facing the nation, like, "What's a Doukhobor," "Did Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald really do it in a canoe," and "What was Wyndham Lewis doing in Wawa"? No one actually able to finish this book will remain untouched by the subtle lyric voice that weaves together disparate, irrelevant, and often offensive elements of the Canadian experience into an unforgettable poem for the aged.

Michael Boughn worked in the Teamsters for nearly 10 years before returning to university to earn a PhD in 1986 after studying with poets John Clarke and Robert Creeley. He is the author of ten books of poetry, including Iterations of the Diagonal, Dislocations in Crystal, 22 Skidoo / SubTractions, Cosmographia – a post-Lucretian faux micro-epic (short-listed for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2011), and most recently, Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol. 1 Illus. Ed. (BookThug, 2012). He has also published books for young adults, including the Maple Award nominated Into the World of the Dead, a mystery novel, and a descriptive bibliography of the American poet, H.D. He recently edited (with Victor Coleman) Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book for the University of California Press. He has also published numerous articles on film, writing, architecture and music, most recently "The War on Art and Zero Dark Thirty" in CineAction. He has taught courses at the University of Toronto since 1993, recently focusing primarily on American writing with special emphasis on the innovative writers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Michael Boughn's profile page

"This stuff is so cold it's almost hot." —Marshall McLuhan

"This is not Great Literature." —Northrup Frye

"Who let this guy into the country?" —George Grant