Controlled Burn
by Maury Wrubleski
Thistledown Press Ltd., 1999
Review by Joanna M. Weston
Wrubleski is a prairie poet: his staccato style of writing is like
listening to sudden hail drumming on the roof, lines such as 'Day coughs
diesel spits carburation binds hoses together with baler twine trips to
town ...' force the reader's attention as he focuses on details of a man's
world on the prairies, making them vivid and immediate. He is hunter,
horseman, jazzman, and is able to make poetry of events that open his
life to our viewing in such a way that his experience becomes ours.
The first poems, about horses, are intensely evocative - one can almost
smell the horse, feel its strength and power, and are caught up in the
disturbing end of each poem. In 'Del T. and the Age of Jazz' we hear 'Thundering
marathons of arena rock anthems' and are drawn into the music and the
occasion. He gives us the hunter's keen observation of bird-life in 'Coot'
and 'Blue Heron'. He conjures the prairie landscape more often by implication
than direct statement, but there are sudden glimpses as in 'blue on grey-blue
over the prairie, where the sun spots some leverage/ and cranks the cumulus...'.
Wrubleski's elliptic use of language, omission of articles and conjunctions,
gives a cutting edge to his poetry which, added to the pulsating rhythms
of his work , create a clarity to the inner life that he portrays. Controlled
Burn is a book to have by the bedside and browze through over and over
again.
JOANNA
M. WESTON: born in England; married to an accountant, Robert; 3 sons,
one daughter-in-law, 3 grandchildren, two cats; has a green thumb and
an enlarging garden. M.A. from the University of British Columbia; appears
in several anthologies; published in Canada, U.S.A., U.K. etc. for the
past 15 years in magazines such as CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES, CHIRON REVIEW,
DANDELION, ENDLESS MOUNTAIN REVIEW, SPIN, WRITER’S OWN MAGAZINE, GREEN’S
MAGAZINE, etc.; reviews poetry. chapbooks: ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES, 1987;
CUERNAVACA DIARY, 1990; SEASONS, 1993; ALL SEASONS, 1996 (2nd edition
1997).
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