Drift: Poems - Softcover

Connolly, Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0887847277 ISBN 13: 9780887847271

Publisher: House of Anansi Press, 2006

Synopsis

What happens at the very moment when thought moves from the banal and everyday into the oblique and odd? In drift, Kevin Connolly investigates this mysterious mental realm that all of us tend to find ourselves in from time to time. Examining the moment when one thought collides into another, Connolly incorporates into his poems such witty, joyous ideas as a meditation on the business end of a sea cucumber and a world in which disfigured historical celebrities are left to wander the consumer grid. Constantly juxtaposing opposites to delightful effect, drift meanders into, in Connolley's own words, a place where "what starts the heart stops the world."

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Connolly’s previous collections include Asphalt Cigar a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award; Drift, winner of the Trillium Poetry Prize; and Revolver a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and Trillium Book Award. He teaches poetry in the MFA program at the University of Guelph-Humber and has been poetry faculty at the Banff Centre’s May Writing Studio.

Review

"Anguish, mockery, the simple, searing truth of being and essence: these are some of the components of Kevin Connolly's astonishing and absolute poetry. . . . These poems are what the Cyclone is to Coney Island -- what poetry, at its thrilling, unsettling best, should be." -- Trillium Award jury citation for drift

"Kevin Connolly invites readers to step beyond the usual bounds of the lyric, even as it presents the illusion of lyric poetry. . . drift is funny, yes, but the humour is cutting; it knows too well what its final line says: 'What starts the heart stops the world.'" -- Edmonton Journal

"Peppered with recognizable forms and diction, yet distinctly different in tone and content, drift sets Kevin Connolly apart from his contemporaries as a poet who unexpectedly delights in toying with reader expectations." -- Globe and Mail

"Though I'm not usually a fan of poetry too full of wordplay, Connolly (like Paul Muldoon) is one who can pull it off. But his sense of play goes beyond silliness. The poems that result, though completely contemporary, are ageless." -- subTerrain

"Whitman established his individuality by incorporating multitudes. Connolly, on the other hand, lives in a world where it's nearly impossible to be an individual. Everyone represents everyone else -- everything reflects everything, every day another building of mirrors goes up -- and everyone, rather than containing multitudes, has become contained by multitudes." -- Chicago Review

About this edition

• Publisher: House of Anansi Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0887847277
• ISBN 13: 9780887847271
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 85