Description
Either too early or too late, Monty Reid's The Lockdown Elegiesis a farewell to something that hasn't disappeared yet. Fragmentary, slightly aphoristic, sometimes funny and sometimes scared, the poems address the stresses, the isolation and the contradictory responses brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. They try, repeatedly, to pretend it's over.
The entire collection is an elegy for friends who died during this period, including Reid's father-in-law, who passed away during the second lockdown. The work is never bleak, and while there is a pervasive sense of loss at the heart of these poems, there is also a quiet celebration of the persistence and strength of poetry itself and of a community determined to survive with as much grace as possible.
About the author
Monty Reid was born in Saskatchewan and worked in Alberta for four decades, but currently lives in Ottawa, where he worked at the Canadian Museum of Nature for many years. He has published 14 books, beginning with Karst Means Stone (NeWest Press, 1979) and most recently Meditatio Placentae (Brick, 2016). Other book-length collections include Crawlspace (Anansi, 1993), Flat Side (rdc press, 1998), Disappointment Island (Chaudiere Books, 2006) and The Luskville Reductions (Brick, 2008). His many chapbooks have been published in Japan, France, the UK and other countries - the most recent are Nipple Variations (postghost press) and Seam (above/ground press). His work has won many honors, including National Magazine Awards, the Lampman Award, and the Stephansson Award for Poetry. He has been short-listed for a Governor-General's Award on three occasions. A founding member of the Writers Guild of Alberta, he was also a founder of VerseFest, Ottawa's international poetry festival, where he served as Director almost a decade. In addition to his work as a poet, he played guitar and mandolin in bands in Alberta (Blue Lonesome) and Ottawa (Call Me Katie). A recent neurological condition has curtailed his playing, and now spends any spare time growing vegetables in his large backyard garden.