Hymnswitch

Shortlisted, Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize

Standing in the granite of his own voice.
Remembering your gathering body.

Hello, My Forever Ago, don't worry,
you won't be reading this much longer.

You will have already returned
in a snowcloud, which is suggestively,

fashionably, only ever one second old.
Yes, Darling, it's me, it says

as proof that in space
though there are many silences,

fleeting isn't the opposite
of infinite, but its perfect match.

Four years ago, Ali Blythe arrived with Twoism, a remarkable debut collection, every line shimmering with life and shivering with erotically charged glimpses of completeness. Now in Hymnswitch, Blythe takes up the themes of identity and the body once again, this time casting an eye backwards and forwards, visiting places of recovery and wrestling with the transition into one's own skin. Readers will find themselves holding their breath at the risk and beauty and difficulty of the balance Blythe strikes in the midst of ineffable complexity.

Combining a stark, tensile precision with musicality that lulls and surprises, Blythe, a  surreal engineer of language, has once again created an unusually memorable collection. Imbued with emotional awareness, these stunning poems will imprint readers with startling images and silences as potent as words.

Ali Blythe is the author of two critically acclaimed poetry collections exploring trans-poetics. About Blythe, Stewart Cole writes, “ It’ s exciting to see a writer so conscious of building a body of work within and across collections, pursuing not just a set of ideas and concerns but an artistic vision.”

Blythe has held roles as a guest editor of special editions of literary magazines including for The League of Canadian Poets, Arc Magazine, and Malahat Review, and as editor-in-chief for the Claremont Review, an international literary magazine for youth. His poems and essays have been published in national and international literary journals and anthologies, including The Broadview Introduction to Literature, Best Canadian Essays, and Best Canadian Poetry.