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Enlarge Cover
list price: $13.95
edition:Paperback
category: Poetry
published: Mar 1998
ISBN:9780921870555
publisher:
Ronsdale Press
Description
Mythic and colloquial, lyrical and elegant, Taking the Breath Away introduces us to Harold Rhenisch's mature poetic voice in poems characterized by brilliant imagery and continuous reinvention. Long known as the poet of the land, the poet who conjures the land to speak, Rhenisch in this new collection bridges a host of Western artforms - gothic, baroque, folktale, ballad, post-modernism and the surreal - to extend our "dumbed-down" urban vision.
Humorous and elegaic at once, Taking theBreath Away ranges from Okanagan farmers and Cariboo ranchers to Plato's Republic and German cathedrals, from mad King Ludwig of Bavaria to Van Gogh learning about Canadian snow. These are poems that lift Canadian colloquial speech into a sophisticated language that returns the world to a state of wonder.
Contributor Notes
Harold Rhenisch has published eleven collections of poetry, including Taking the Breath Away (Ronsdale, 1998), a novel, Carnival, about a boy coming of age in wartime Germany, and two books of bio-regional essays. The latest, Tom Thomson's Shack, was nominated for two BC Book Prizes. He recently received the ARC 2003 Poem of the Year award. He studied drama and writing in Victoria, farmed in the Okanagan, and has represented Canadian poetry in England. He lives in 150 Mile House, B.C.
