Vermeer’s LightPoems 1996-2006
George Bowering
Reviewed by Michelle Boucher-Ladd
As Canada’s first Poet Laureate, George Bowering’s collection of poetry
is, as one might expect, exceptional. Vermeer’s Light is
a wonderful collection that every aspiring poet would be obliged to
get. While, including some wonderfully wordy poems such as Word on
Water? Ask a Stupid Question, Lost in the Library, and Ellen
Field’s Analphabet book for Wilbur Snowshoe, nothing in this
collection is over long. It is a fine tuned body, where every word has
weight.
The shorter poems are crisp and intriguing studies. While some of them
are dark and edgy such as the Sitting in Vancouver poems, Three
Political Falltime Haiku, and ASQ others pay wonderful
homage. I love the Williams Carlos Williams rewrites:
Metro Spring
The
apparition
of
these white
chickens
in
the crowd,
petals
on a
wet red
wheelbarrow
And (my favorite):
Pictures
from Bill
According to
Williams
when
Icarus
fell
it
was no big
deal.
Being a
librarian I am
naturally drawn to Bowering’s Lost in the Library. It has a
witty craft and a lovely “rime.” This poem makes me doubt George
Bowering’s staying power as “infinitesimal.” I love best the second
section:
2.
I’m
a wreck
in
the
bibliotheque.
I’ve
got time
I’ve
got rime,
I’ve
got a
really dirty neck.
I
can’t write
my way
out
of a wet
paper Dewey decimal.
Right now my
skill
and
most of my
will
are
infinitesimal.
The last quarter of this book is what
makes it a
must have for any student of poetry. Rewriting My Grandfather shares
poetry as process. It is incredibly insightful, dispelling the myths of
writing. It also makes a brief tourist stop out of the work that goes
into making a poem poetry. George Bowering’s art is a monument well
worth the stop and revisit.