Vicinity
Published on 15. October 2003
78 pages
978-1-894078-99-3 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the 2004 Archibald Lampman Award (National Capital Region -- Ottawa) and shortlisted for the 2004 Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the 2004 ReLit Awards
In The Vicinity David O'Meara gives us a new kind of cityscape, one that brings its unseen, and usually unsung, materials to the foreground. Brick, concrete (that "not-so-silver screen / our walk-on parts are posed upon"), glass, steel, wire: they step boldly from anonymity into fresh focus, backdrops goaded into stardom. Full of casually-worn wit and humour, often using intricate forms that deftly reflect their subjects, these poems probe our conventional attitudes while walking us down present or remembered streets -- "Some-such Avenue / Rue Saint Whatever."
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Born and raised in Pembroke, Ontario, O'Meara now lives in Ottawa and tends bar at the Manx Pub. Storm still (1999) was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award. The Vicinity (2003) was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Noble Gas, Penny Black is his third collection.
Content
- Cover Page
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- I: A Civic Gesture
- Brickwork
- Structural Steel
- Concrete
- The Safety Elevator
- Grass
- Glass
- Wire
- Rooftop
- The Basilica at Assisi
- The Valley Temples of Egypt
- The Unhappy Condition
- Nomad
- Houses in Small Towns
- Photograph of the Funeral Pyre of Pol Pot
- To the Minotaur
- Day Planner
- At the Aching-Heart Diner
- Fountain
- Riding the Escalators
- Poem for King Kong
- Poise
- From a Dawn Taxi
- The Turofsky Collection
- From a Stopped Train
- Abandoned Movie-House
- To a Friend
- Sister
- Letter to Auden
- II: Walking Around
- Rough Directions
- The Weather
- Thinking and Feeling
- Fun
- Fess Up
- Winter Walking
- A Last Walk
- Idleness
- Walking Around
- Notes
- Acknowledgements
- Biography
