A Globe 100 book for 2005 and longlisted for the 2005 ReLit Awards

From James Reaney, three-times Governor General’s Award winner, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, member of the Order of Canada, comes the first new book of poetry since Performance Poems (1993).

The poems in Souwesto Home are fresh, youthful meditations on such diverse subjects as the Little Lakes near Stratford, Ontario, the flora of Elgin County, the Donnelly feud, lichens, a Department Store Jesus, and so on. The collection ranges widely in tone and technique, from the lyrical to the satirical, from the direct and straightforward to the linguistically playful. As ever, Reaney’s signature voice, his inimitable combination of sophistication and child-like simplicity, may be heard in every line. Like his contemporaries, P.K. Page, Margaret Avison and Colleen Thibaudeau (his wife), he has lost nothing of his poetic prowess to advancing years.

I know a book that opens up people
And reads them,
Spreads them out, pleat by pleat,
Till they see as far up as up,
Till they see farther far than down.
It makes so sharp their eyes
That East or West
They can spot Nobody coming up the Road.

From “Brush Strokes Decorating a Fan”

Souwesto Home includes some of James Reaney’s own drawings.