
Earthly Pages
The Poetry of Don Domanski
Don Domanski(Author)
Brian Bartlett(Editor)
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. August 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
78 pages
978-1-55458-008-8 (ISBN)
Description
With The Cape Breton Book of the Dead, Don Domanski emerged as a remarkable new voice in Canadian poetry, combining formal conciseness with broad cosmic allusions, constant surprise with brooding atmospherics, and innovative syntax with delicate phrasings. In subsequent collections, Domanski's poetry has deepened and expanded, with longer lines and more complex structures that journey into the far reaches of metaphor. Now, with Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski, the long-awaited first selection from his books, readers have a chance to experience the full range of his work in one volume.
Editor Brian Bartlett, in his introduction, ""The Trees are Full of Rings,"", discusses Domanski's engagement with nature and the transformative power of his metaphors; his poetic bestiary amd mythical underpinnings; and his kinship to poets like Stevens, Whitman, and Rumi. Like these poets, Domanski is drawn to borderlands between the physical and the spiritual, the unconscious and the conscious. His poetry finds a home for demons and angels, spiders and wolves - and for kitchens and back alleys, forests and stars.
In language both fluent and hypnotic, Domanski maintains an awareness of both the magnitudes and the minutiae that live beyond language. In ""Flying Over Language,"" an essay written specifically for this volume, the poet explains that for him metaphor is one way to suggest the wealth of being that poetry can only point toward.
Editor Brian Bartlett, in his introduction, ""The Trees are Full of Rings,"", discusses Domanski's engagement with nature and the transformative power of his metaphors; his poetic bestiary amd mythical underpinnings; and his kinship to poets like Stevens, Whitman, and Rumi. Like these poets, Domanski is drawn to borderlands between the physical and the spiritual, the unconscious and the conscious. His poetry finds a home for demons and angels, spiders and wolves - and for kitchens and back alleys, forests and stars.
In language both fluent and hypnotic, Domanski maintains an awareness of both the magnitudes and the minutiae that live beyond language. In ""Flying Over Language,"" an essay written specifically for this volume, the poet explains that for him metaphor is one way to suggest the wealth of being that poetry can only point toward.
Reviews / Votes
``Bartlett's selection of poems provides a most helpful introduciton to Domanski. Bartlett's opening essay explores sources and affinities ... without diminishing the poet's originality. Bartlett ... also looks at the range of his work, both the allusiveness and the reach into space (from critters of the forest floor to the stars) and time (back as far as the origins of life).... The volume concludes with a concise, powerful essay by the poet himself, an exploration of his ideas about intuition, about language (`language itself is transient, and the usage we lean so heavily upon is nailed to thin air').... The core of the book is poetry, thirty-six poems that illustrate Domanski's genius, his ability to nail meaning to thin air. The poems introduce us to a universe rich and strange and full of perilous seas, and the metaphors persuade us that it is our own.... Traces of the invisible are everywhere visible in this poet's work, and that is an earned paradox.'' -- Bert Almon -- Canadian Literature, 200810 ``The quest for a wider audience for poetry may be quixotic, but this series makes a serious attempt to present attractive, affordable selections that speak to contemporary interests and topics that might engage a younger generation of readers. Yet it does not condescend, preferring to provide substantial and sophisticated poets to these new readers. At the very least, these slim volumes will make very useful introductory teaching texts in post-secondary classrooms because they whet the appetite without overwhelming.'' -- Paul Milton -- Canadian Literature, 193, Summer 2007, 201003 ``Disarmingly forthright, Domanski's exploration of intuition is inviting.'' -- Paul W. Harland, University of Alberta -- Journal of Canadian Poetry, 201003More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
136 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-55458-008-8 (9781554580088)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Don Domanski was born and raised on Cape Breton Island and now lives in Halifax. He has published eight books of poetry, two of which were short-listed for the Governor General's Award, and in 1999 he won the Canadian Literary Award for Poetry. Published and reviewed internationally, his work has been translated into Czech, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Brian Bartlett's books of poetry include Granite Erratics, The Afterlife of Trees, Travels of the Watch, and Wanting the Day: Selected Poems, which was published in both Britain and Canada and won the 2004 Atlantic Poetry Prize. He also edited Don McKay: Essays on His Works and is working on a collection of prose, Living with Poetry. He teaches at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.
Brian Bartlett's books of poetry include Granite Erratics, The Afterlife of Trees, Travels of the Watch, and Wanting the Day: Selected Poems, which was published in both Britain and Canada and won the 2004 Atlantic Poetry Prize. He also edited Don McKay: Essays on His Works and is working on a collection of prose, Living with Poetry. He teaches at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.
Content
Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski, selected with an introduction by Brian Bartlett
Foreward Neil Besner
Biographical Note
Introduction: The Trees Are Full of Rings Brian Barlett
Beldam
Angels
Summer-Piece
The Sacrifice
Sunrise at Sea Level
One for an Apparition
A Netherpoem
Sub Rosa
Snowbound Letter
Visiting the Grandmother
At Daybreak a Hairsbreadth Turns to Blue
Hammerstroke
Hammerstroke II
Dangerous Words
Looking for a Destination
The Sleepers
Love Poem on the Sabbath
A Perfect Forehead
The Ape of God
The God of Folding
Excathedra
Fata Morgana
Epiphany Under Thunderclouds
Before the Plague and the Breaking of Fingers
Lethean Lock Mnemonic Key
He Leans Homeward
House
Taking the Train to Fredericton
The Passageway
Walking Away
What the Bestiary Said
Sentient Beings
Sleep's Ova
Banns
Afterword: Flying Over Language Don Domanski
Acknowledgments
Foreward Neil Besner
Biographical Note
Introduction: The Trees Are Full of Rings Brian Barlett
Beldam
Angels
Summer-Piece
The Sacrifice
Sunrise at Sea Level
One for an Apparition
A Netherpoem
Sub Rosa
Snowbound Letter
Visiting the Grandmother
At Daybreak a Hairsbreadth Turns to Blue
Hammerstroke
Hammerstroke II
Dangerous Words
Looking for a Destination
The Sleepers
Love Poem on the Sabbath
A Perfect Forehead
The Ape of God
The God of Folding
Excathedra
Fata Morgana
Epiphany Under Thunderclouds
Before the Plague and the Breaking of Fingers
Lethean Lock Mnemonic Key
He Leans Homeward
House
Taking the Train to Fredericton
The Passageway
Walking Away
What the Bestiary Said
Sentient Beings
Sleep's Ova
Banns
Afterword: Flying Over Language Don Domanski
Acknowledgments