anaty
RNs

Moses makes it new with

Delicate Bodies. Daniel David
Moses, Nightwood Editions,
$9.95

of these years when the shadowy
powers-that-be wake up and real-
ize that they’re standing in the
shadaw of a giant, Moses makes
the majority of his contemporaries
look dim indeed. .
He is busy writing plays ane
working with native and cross-
cultural arts organizations, Where
his poetic muse is concerned, he's
a perfect genteman. Fe doesn’t
have his band up her skirt every

viving aff those Bemovies?

Poets who work hard and
publish onty their best every de-
cade or sa are ata definite disad-
vantage, .

Mases husbands his enormous
talent with a masterful restraint
reflected in his poetry, Intense,
direct, natural imagery is held in
check ina subtly structured web
of syllabies, like haiku, only longer
(Oh no! t's the Prosody Lecture!

Poets who commit to a conven-
tional rhyme scheme often come
to resemble feg-hold-trapped
coyotes, gnawing at their own
limbs. But by using syllabies as
practically invisible steel reinforc-
ing rods, a poet like Moses can
manipulate internal and near-
rhymes more frecly, subtly and
ultimately to greater effect.

In Falling Song, he takes that
most quintessentially hackneyed

laibics

missed a parade Iwould have
wanted to follow.”

The centrepiece of this collec-
tion is the superb calendar of
poems — one for each month. It
really ought to be published on its
own in concert with an artist like
Kim LaFave, who did the cover, as
a favor to people who'd rather
spend a month studying a poem
while they check out what day it is
than ponder advertising from real

estate and financial institutions or
idiot cartoons.

Moses’ most recent collection is
The White Line (Fifth House,
$10.95 and well worth it.)

If you don’t read another poet
this year, read this buy. When the
GG shakes his hand, you'll be able
to say you knew him when. a

Canadian image of migrating geese
and makes it new — to cop a
shrase from Ezra Pound — by
aving the poet hanging out a
clowntown hotel window instead
of wandering-in some wheatfield,
He finishes with a deceptively
simple, structurally complex
“Leaning/over the sill like I'd

Let's cut class...).

Syllabics simply determine pat-
terns of line length by syllable
rather than by the obstrusive ac-
cented feet that prevent most of us
from reading Shakespeare's son-
nets without emphasizing the
deadly monotonous five-beat
shythm.

five minutes to crank out a book
every two years and keep the
grant money rolling in.

Since prolific publishing and a
high profile do seem at times to be
factors in the nation's most
prestigious literary award, it
becomes a bit like, ‘Isn't it time
Jack Palance got an Oscar for sur-

%

John Moore
. BOOK REVIEW

DON'T often plug poet-
ry in this space, but this
re-issue of a 1980 ble-

wointment press original by
one of my favorite Poets’
Who Don’t Get Enough
Recognition set off a rattle in
the chain-locker.
._ Danie) David Moses, Dela-
~ ware-born at Ohsweken, Ontario,
on the land of the Six Nations, is
best known for his plays like
Coyote City, nominated for the
1991 Governor-General’s Literary
Award for Drama. But my own bet
is he’ll pull the GG for poetry one

4

A NEW NAME... THE
SAME GARDEN EXPERTS

Our Burnaby store has more checkouts and more
information desks to make sure you get the right
advice and have more time to spend at home in your
garden.

HERBS FOR COOKING

Find a corner for them in your garden! Popular
parsley, chives, thyme and oregano are always
welcome.

‘How about something different: ginger mint,
catnip, pennyroyal, or chamomile? Spice up

your life this week. .
SALE

4" pots reg. $2.29
STRAWBERRY POTS

The original! Handcrafted, Mexican strawberry
pots make ideal planters not only for
.strawberries, but also for herbs or collections of
summer-flowering annuals, Let your imagination
start you growing.

Popular nine-pocket pot stands 17” high.
Regular $29.99

GARDEN SOILS

We carry the finest selection of garden soils for
every garden — large or small or even
containey-size. Everyone loves our original bulk
soil bins where you fill a bag with a rich

“mixture of soil, peat, manure & sand-still a
great deal at $3 for almost two cubic feet!

HERB GARDENING TIPS

Join us this Sunday under our sunny greenhouse roof and hear
our staff experts give handy advice on how to grow herbs in
containers. Learn how to combine plants so they will flourish,
how to care for them, and how to harvest your herbs. Every hour
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Everything To Make Your Garden Work!
BURNAB'

WHITE ZINFANDEL — ROBERT
MONDAV] — WOODBRIDGE
1991 $11.20 (California)
| SWORE pink wine would never
touch these lips. “Blush is some-
thing ladies do, not something you
-* drink!’ 1 insisted. Hah.
The super-charged grapiness of
the irrepressible “zin,’’ even
“diluted and chilled, really does
add a distinctive swish to a cold
summer spread.
“Totally flexible; will complement
the pate as readily as the cold
lobster ja mayonnaise and still
‘stand firm against the onslaught of
smoked Alaska black cod, a hearty
- cloppino or anything with black
olives doing the backstroke in”
.. spicy tomato ‘marinara’ sauce
— stuff that might otherwise drive -
you to'grope for the jug of red.
Also a serious challenger of
" gewurztraminer’s claim to be the
-only grape to stare down a curry,
__- Eek, I’m blushing.
'. CABERNET SAUVIGNON — HA-
“CIENDA ST. GEORGES 1989
$15.15 (Chile)
_lflow-end Chilean wines are a
. ” bargain, the emerging upscale
, versions are a flat-out steal.
If this elegant, complex cabernet
was Californian, you’d pony up 10 |
bucks more. If it was French,
you'd be grovelling in front of a
“loans officer.
Still young — well worth laying
‘on for a couple of years — so stick
a case under the bed.

\ We aS St
EC)

“HOT! HOT! HOT
i... Book Now For ,
Mother’s Day - May 9th

SATS |

oo bene

| 445 13th St, W.Van | 926-8922