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River Suite
by Joe Blades
Insomniac Press, 1999.

Fredericton, like Saskatoon, like Winnipeg, is a river city. In the opening sequence to his latest poetry collection, Joe Blades explores the symbolism of the river and some of its effects on the psychology of citizenship in the New Brunswick capital. The sequence is at times startling, lyrical and profound, and it serves as a strong introduction to the rest of the collection, which spreads out in different directions and lacks the unity of theme found in the introductory section. No matter. The individual poems, which are mostly narrative, do not weaken.