The Danforth Review's Poetry Editors
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Geoffrey Cook
Geoffrey Cook has published poetry and essays in many Canadian journals, including
Descant, Fiddlehead, Pottersfield Portfolio, and
The Canadian Journal of Comparative Literature. He
teaches English at John Abbott College outside Montreal, where he lives.
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What do you like and dislike about contemporary Canadian poetry? (Name names.)
I like Richard
Sanger, Ken Babstock and Stephanie Bolster - which is as contemporary as I get.
I admire the intelligence, energy, sensitivity and craftsmanship of these poets. Before them - but
still 'contemporary' - I like Bringhurst, MacPherson and Nowlan (as well as the songs of Leonard
Cohen). I dislike Susan Musgrave and Al Purdy; I particularly dislike their imitators. What is
admirable about "Canadian" poetry is its range and diversity, however problematic that makes
Canadian politics, cultural policies or academic dissertations on a Canadian sensibility. A
revealing confession: I don't like the mania of 'poetry slams' or 'spoken-word poetry', though I
admit it raises the profile of the art. And I don't think that the future belongs to the suburbs.
Describe the types of poems you'd like to see in TDR.
Generalities are the best guide, otherwise one gets prescriptive, and I have no intention
of
becoming partisan or promulgating a manifesto. So I would like to see poetry that is free of
cliche - intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and technically. In particular I would like to see
conscientious craftsmanship; I don't mean only traditional forms, but I certainly mean purposeful
use of line breaks based on rhythm instead of, at best, visual puns. It is self-conscious
craftsmanship which reveals the soul's uniqueness, not vice versa.
Name a favorite poet, and say why.
I think Canadian artists are well past the anxiety of assuming the world stage, so I can say my
'favourite poet' is not Canadian or singular: Seamus Heaney because of his lyricism and rural
imagery; Derek Walcott because of his narrative and epic impulse and his sea imagery; and
Joseph Brodsky because of his irony, intelligence and formal sophistication.
Shane Neilson |
Shane Neilson is a lean, mean, poetry machine from New Brunswick. He is a lover of small
children and animals (but not that kind of love.) He is living in Newfoundland and has published in
Canada, America, England and Ireland. He has won the 1999 Canadian Poetry Association's
contest for best poem, was shortlisted for the THIS magazine's 2000 Literary Hunt for poetry,
and was shortlisted for the 2000 Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award. He is a really great guy. A
swell guy. Son of a preacher-man. Member of the literati. He is vrai
poetique. He is only slightly annoying.
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What do you like and dislike about contemporary Canadian poetry? (Name names.)
Like: snuff poems, garbage poems, limericks about Nantucket. Despise poems like grocery lists
that are "heavily grounded in the senses". Specificity is not the only way. Keep your objects to
yourself, gentle shoppers. Like experiments that don't go awry. Don't like Susan
Musgrave. Like much else. Don't like much more.
Describe the types of poems you'd like to see in TDR.
Send me your oddities, your oddballs, your odds. I want leper poems, poems about necrophilia,
pica. You're guaranteed publication if
you write one of those, good or bad. Better yet, try to write a poem including all three.
Name a favorite poet, and say why.
Oh, I'll confess to a nasty Purdy habit. I know it's not cool, but nevertheless. Why? The man
was gutsy and stupid enough to indiscriminately publish; some poems were so lateral but direct
I knew I wanted to BE him. I coveted his existence on the basis of poems like "Necropsy of
Love", ones that had irregular rhythms and meant something, something that when paraphrased
is irredeemably trite. His signed firsts shuffle on my shelves.
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