Selected Poems: 1977-1997

by Lane, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9781550171747
• ISBN10: 1550171747
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-01-01
• Publisher: Harbour

Summary

Patrick Lane, one of Canada's most distinguished and acclaimed poets, has published over twenty books of poetry in his long career. This collection, the only comprehensive book of his poetry since 1988, gathers together the work of two decades, presenting his best work as a mature poet.

Author Biography

Patrick Lane, considered by most writers and critics to be one of Canada's finest poets, was born in 1939 in Nelson, BC. He grew up in the in the Kootenay and Okanagan regions of the BC Interior, primarily in Vernon. He came to Vancouver and co-founded a small press, Very Stone House with bill bissett and Seymour Mayne. He then drifted extensively throughout North and South America. He has worked at a variety of jobs from labourer to industrial accountant, but much of his life has been spent as a poet, having produced twenty-four books of poetry to date. He is also the father of five children and grandfather of nine. He has won nearly every literary prize in Canada, from the Governor General's Award to the Canadian Authors Association Award to the Dorothy Livesay Prize. In 2014, he became an Officer of the Order of Canada, an honour that recognizes a lifetime of achievement and merit of a high degree. His poetry and fiction have been widely anthologized and have been translated into many languages. Lane now makes his home in Victoria, BC, with his companion, the poet Lorna Crozier.

Table of Contents

THE MEASURE (Black Moss Press, 1981)	13	(14)
The Measure	13	(2)
Just Living	15	(3)
CPR Station--Winnipeg	18	(1)
Fragments	19	(2)
Chinook	21	(1)
The Garden	22	(5)
OLD MOTHER (Oxford University Press, 1983)	27	(14)
Buffalo Stones	27	(1)
Skull	28	(2)
There Is a Time	30	(2)
A Red Bird Bearing on His Back an Empty Cup	32	(2)
The Great Wall	34	(1)
Commune Girl	35	(1)
Over the Slow Rivers	36	(5)
SELECTED POEMS (Oxford University Press, 1987)	41	(12)
The Beauty	41	(1)
Harvest	42	(1)
Variations	43	(3)
Dostoevsky	46	(3)
Night	49	(4)
WINTER (Coteau Books, 1990)	53	(24)
Winter 1	53	(1)
Winter 2	54	(1)
Winter 4	55	(1)
Winter 6	56	(1)
Winter 7	57	(1)
Winter 13	58	(1)
Winter 15	59	(1)
Winter 16	60	(1)
Winter 18	61	(1)
Winter 20	62	(1)
Winter 21	63	(1)
Winter 22	64	(1)
Winter 27	65	(1)
Winter 31	66	(1)
Winter 33	67	(1)
Winter 34	68	(1)
Winter 35	69	(1)
Winter 39	70	(1)
Winter 40	71	(1)
Winter 41	72	(1)
Winter 42	73	(1)
Winter 44	74	(3)
MORTAL REMAINS (Exile Editions, 1991)	77	(30)
Swift Current	77	(2)
Dominion Day Dance	79	(1)
The Far Field	80	(2)
The Killer	82	(2)
Father	84	(2)
Fathers and Sons	86	(2)
She	88	(2)
The Happy Little Towns	90	(2)
Brothers	92	(2)
The Attitude of Mourning	94	(2)
The Book of Knowledge	96	(1)
Fragility	97	(1)
The Firebreather	98	(1)
Balance	99	(1)
Detail	100	(1)
La Scala	101	(1)
Impression	102	(1)
In the Dark	103	(1)
Dinner	104	(3)
TOO SPARE, TOO FIERCE (Harbour Publishing, 1995)	107
The Desert	107	(1)
Balsam Root	108	(1)
Stars	109	(1)
Naramata	110	(1)
Knotted Water	111	(1)
Wisteria	112	(1)
Held Water	113	(1)
The Changing Room	114	(2)
Cougar Men	116	(2)
Cougar	118	(1)
Far North	119	(1)
The Calf	120	(1)
The First Time	121	(1)
China White	122	(1)
Too Spare, Too Fierce	123	(1)
Breaking	124	(1)
The Story in His Bones	125	(2)
Moths	127

Excerpts

WINTER 31
What the child finds in snow is what a ship finds
in the sea, a wake left behind, a froth
that sinks back into itself everyone else
waiting for the return, the full hold,
the grain come again, the hosannas
which are prayers to plenty. The child knows
nothing of this. He has been sent out to play
and has discovered misery.
He is learning that the footsteps he finds in snow
are his and his alone. How sweet his lament,
this silence in the negative world of cold.
It is a kind of perfect mutiny, everyone waiting
and him knowing there will be no return.
If he were a priest he would say:
This is the end of the first lesson.


THE FIRST TIME
The first time
I saw a chicken
run headless
across the yard

I wanted
to do it too

I wanted
to kill something
so perfectly
it would live


DINNER
I would like to have dinner with the man
who didn't follow Christ, the one who,
when Jesus said Follow me and I
will make you fishers of men, decided
to go fishing instead, getting in his boat,
pushing out from shore, his nets clean
and repaired, thinking I will have to work
even harder now in order to feed
everyone left behind. I would like
to sit on the beach with him
in front of a careful fire,
his wife and children asleep,
sharing a glass of wine, both of us
telling stories about what we've done
with our lives, the ones we caught,
the ones that got away.

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Excerpted from Selected Poems, 1977-1997 by Patrick Lane
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.