\n

\u201cNew and Selected Poems 1961-2001. This collection includes poems from four of Phyllis Gotlieb’s previously published books. The earlier pieces are dense, each word a tessera placed in a tight literary mosaic. As the reader moves through the work, the later poems open out, growing more freewheeling and adventurous. In both cases, Gotlieb makes every word count, creating some poems like faceted jewels and others like necklaces that link images together, such as the highly original \u2018Thirty-Six Ways of Looking at Toronto Ontario.\u2019 Revealing a significant interest in visual art, the poet references Rembrandt, Bruegel, Bosch, Hokusai, Edward Hopper, and others. Always, the startling language that results from acute observation is front and centre: a monkey with a \u2018honed critical face,\u2019 \u2018fine black pearls of olives,\u2019 \u2018phlegmy\u2019 oysters, carousels that \u2018mutter jerkily.\u2019 The long poem \u2018Ordinary, Moving,\u2019 is a classic of sound and rhyme that uses children’s songs, poems, and sayings (\u2018Mother Mother I am sick \/ call for the doctor quick quick quick!!!\u2019) in a playful orgy of music. But Gotlieb is also capable of writing poems of surpassing strangeness, such as \u2018ms & mr frankenstein,\u2019 about a monster built of rubbish, or \u2018Geffen and Ravna,\u2019 which depicts the weird, cold world of ill-fated lovers. This poet is obviously in love with words–and knows how to use them.\u201d \u2014Mark Frutkin<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stunningly original, this collection \u2013 a prodigious feat of verbal invention \u2013 contains idiomatic phrases spiced with quicksilver insights, exploring craziness and horror, grief and love, wry humor and historical commentary.Gottlieb has proven over four decades that she is original, significant, and always a contemporary Canadian poet.<\/p>\n

Poetry 2002 \u2022 6 x 9 inches \u2022 PB 135 pages \u2022 9781550966015<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[313],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-6315","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","product_cat-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/6315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=6315"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.exileeditions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=6315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}