Looking Into Trees

Looking Into Trees is the latest collection from the pen of eminent Canadian poet Douglas Lochhead. Drawing its inspiration from time spent looking "into trees, between trees, around trees", behind the poet's house, the collection evokes the wonderful mystery of trees and the way they confront the contemplative viewer. For Lochhead, the ever-changing landscape of trees, their shadows and lights, reflects life itself, the great changes and the small details. Lochhead presents looking into and between trees as a continuing surprise; every hour, every second is different, as light changes and wind moves, leading to reflection on the moods, events, and phases of human life. Lochhead's human world is intimately interwoven with its landscape. The work is illustrated with details from paintings by Kenneth Lochhead, the poet's brother and one of the Regina Five group of abstract painters who were so significant to the development of Canada's fine arts tradition.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a life-member of the League of Canadian Poets, Douglas Lochhead is a graduate of McGill University and the University of Toronto. He has taught English and been a member of the library staffs of universities in Canada, the United States, and Scotland. At Mount Allison University, he has held the positions of Davidson Professor of Canadian Studies and Writer in Residence. A Senior Fellow and Founding Librarian of Massey College, University of Toronto, Lochhead has received the Alden Nowlan Award, the Carlo Betocchi Prize, and several honorary degrees.

About the Illustrator, Kenneth Lochhead

Ken Lochhead's honours include the Order of Canada, the Golden Jubilee Medal, the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Regina. One of the Regina Five painters -leaders in Canada's modern art movement- his work has appeared in more than three hundred national and international exhibitions, and he taught at the University of Manitoba, York University, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Ottawa.