Rain; road; an open boat

(Paperback)

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The first new collection of poetry from Roo Borson since her highly acclaimed collection Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, winner of three major prizes, including the Griffin Poetry Prize. Roo Borson's new collection continues the exploration of form, tone, musicality, and content begun in her widely acclaimed previous collection. Here, co-existing peacefully, are the river stone, painted white, that greets the visitor to the grave of the poet James K. Baxter in the far back country of New Zealand's Wanganui River; the Beijing night sky, turned apricot by the smog and full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival; the crypts of Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery, seen as potential living spaces; an old friend speaking "knowledgeably, reverentially, and at the same time light-heartedly, in this way gradually restoring significance to the world." By turns wry and ecstatic, droll and elegiac, quizzical and contemplative, this is a major new work by one of our most singular and compelling poets.

Reviews

Praise for Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishidia:

"Roo Borson invites us to embark on a meditative, imaginative and spiritual journey. This book has a profound inner life. It is resonant and whole, moving with quiet, apparently easy steps into the depth of human experience." -- Jury citation, Governor General's Award

"This is the work of a poet writing at the height of her powers. It is a poetic journal of mortality, ... of entering middle age, and of journeying through landscape, seasons, plants, pasts, to find it again. The book is a small perfection in its construction, moving deftly through seasons and forms...." -- Jury citation, Griffin Poetry Prize

Author Bio

Roo Borson has published eleven books of poems, including Short Journey Upriver Toward ishida (2004), winner of the Governor General's Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and the Griffin Poetry Prize, and, most recently, Rain; road; an open boat (2012). She has also won awards for her essays, and, with Kim Maltman, writes collaboratively under the pen name Baziju. She lives in Toronto.