After reading or listening to CBC shortlists for various poetic achievements in this country, my heart broke and my head hurt.
"Dear Lard! Egawds!"
"G-r-r-r . . ."
"You'd think this country only boasts three poets!"
"Whimper . . ."
"That's it. I'm going to send an emaul to everyone I know and ask them to emaul everyone they know and compile a decent list of the Top Ten 2011 Poetry Collections, one selected by as many reachable poets, publishers and interested parties in the short period of time left till January 2nd when Peter Scowen returns from vacation as humanly possible."
"Woof!!!!"
You think I've lost my marbles or something? S'Okay. Never had any marbles anyway. Never wanted 'em — nor boulders, for that matter — neither. What I really want? A new keyboard, one where the "W" works (since, after a certain pair of newly hitched house guests left one day later than decent guests ought to depart, that letter stopped working. I have no idea why).
Neither SoLoDiVo nor SoLoDiVa hoard that letter (and, for the record, neither's name contains it. I confess: I do, in fact, hoard semi-colons; in my opinion, the great shortage of same will hit the very year The Mayan Implosion occurs. At that time, I may sell enough of 'em to buy a new keyboard). Nevertheless, SoLo whinged about how my "F" stuck and how I needed to replace my offending item ipso-quicko; SoLa lamented the cigarette burn on the TAB / CAPS LOCK keys; but, I countered with the fact that, here in The Mag Highlands, disposing of electronica presents an almost insurmountable problem.
To wit: I had no desire to add yet another dead keyboard to our landfill which costs mega-moolah since we have to pay for landfilling, water, oil, hydro, dial-up 'net access, driveway ploughing, yadda-yadda-yikes; and, on top of all that, we still don't have cell towers; hence, I have never seen a Crackberry (except in pics).
The point? When I sent out the call for individuals to submit their trio of last year's top poetry books with the proviso that lists would be weighted according to the order in which each work appeared, I received a tonne of replies, almost a mountain's worth; and, as a result, we — HannaH Grrl and her DawgMa — stayed up all night sorting and tallying this fair, representative and gorgeous list of 2011 Canadian poetry collections:
Ken Babstock, Methodist Hatchet (Anansi)
Stephanie Bolster, A Page from the Wonders of Life on Earth (Brick)
Sue Goyette, Outskirts (Brick)
Phil Hall, Killdeer (BookThug)
Brian Henderson, Sharawadji (Brick)
Patrick Lane, The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane (Harbour)
Garry Thomas Morse, Discovery Passages (Talonbooks)
Jenny Sampirisi, Croak (Coach House)
Anne Simpson, Is (McClelland & Stewart)
Nick Thran, Earworm (Nightwood)
Kudos to those whose works garnered the necessary numeric weight to make the grade. Personally, this list deeply impresses yours truly, probably because so many peeps sent their top-three lists via Blackberry or iPhone; so, thank you for taking time from your vacations and celebrations to make this list egalitarian, wide-ranging and, I hope, satisfactory in a way other lists, due to their brevity, are not.
We cannot thank you enough for your efforts above and beyond the call of beauty (so, we won't even try).
P.S. I could not vote on this one; but, had I been able to so do? My numero-uno books? A toss-up between A Page from the Wonders of Life on Earth by Stephanie Bolster (Brick) or Laurie Smith's The Truth About Roller Skating (Cranberry Tree).
(Toque tug, HannaH GrrL, for her eloquent contributions to her DawgMa's otherwise unanswered prayers, now-historic swears and related in-kitchen expostulations; additionally, I remain grateful to League of Canadian Poets' President Susan McMaster for communicating a nearly impossible last-minute call to so many wonderful writers who not only contributed to this inaugural "In Other Words" list of the just-concluded calendar year's Top Ten Poetry Collections in such a short time-frame but who also wrote, unbidden, some of the kindest and most constructive comments to e-lighten my cyber-doorway concerning this blog, its contents and its contributors in many a moonbeam. We had no idea . . . Thank you!)
