Spiritual Poems of the Soul
£23.24
<p><b>Watch out for those who have, seek, and hold onto power.</b></p><p><i>So drink<br/>As the fanged stoat from the rabbit's nape<br/>As though from a flagon of river water<br/>Shaken with ancestral ash<br/>As if it isn't knowledge you seek<br/>But some osmotic soul-food<br/>To be filled up with blurs<br/>That might later resolve themselves<br/>Into memories<br/>To return to where you really live<br/>With changes in your blood</i></p><p>Lyrical yet shot through with experimental and political veins, the poems in <i>Soft Power</i> are engaged with both the here-and-now of a world on the brink and the hope of something better, a planet where "generations hence / Inactivists will bathe under a sun made safe / By the collapse of oil-can economics."</p><p>Traversing badlands, sandhills, prairies, suburbia, Miami, London, Dublin, Paris, and beyond, Cole's voice revels in questions of travel while resonating with the <i>unheimlich</i> "Canadalienation" of his expatriate existence. Whether bog surfing, gallery hopping, bug hunting, or meditating on the "strange genre" of national anthems, the poems in Cole's long-awaited follow-up collection to his critically acclaimed <i>Questions in Bed</i> exist in a searching exchange with the world, both entering and being entered by it.</p>
Stewart Cole is the author of Questions in Bed, which Salty Ink named as one of the Dozen Best Books of Canadian Poetry from 2012, as well as the chapbooks Sirens and Alien Freight. He grew up in the Rideau Valley, south of Ottawa, and spent time living and writing in Victoria, Montréal, Fredericton, London, and Toronto before moving to the US Midwest. Cole is now an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, teaching English and creative writing. He may be found at stewart-cole.com. Soft Power is his second full-length collection of poetry.
- ISBN-13
- 9781773101088
- Publisher
- Goose Lane Editions
- Imprint
- icehouse poetry
- Publication date
- 24 September 2019
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 88
- Dimensions
- 216 x 140 mm
- Language
- English
