Review - The Forestry Diversification Project

The Forestry Diversification Project – new Prince George Poets
Edited by: Rob Budde
UNBC Press, 2007

Freedom – an anthology of Canadian poets for Turkish resistance
Edited by: Endre Farkas, Elias Letelier, & Carolyn M. Souaid
Poetas.com, 2007

For more info on Rob Budde and Prince George, read the TDR Interview

Reviewed by Ted Harms

Anthologies can be tricky things. In good hands, they can serve as an overview or introduction to common writers or topics; in bad, they can be a Procrustean bed, where deserving poets or contrary views are excluded. Thankfully, conscientious editors have put both of these two poetry collections together.

As can be drawn from the title, the Freedom anthology is politically motivated. The website (www.freedom-anthology.com) provides the details (unfortunately omitted from the manifesto in the volume):

Nine Canadian poets…come together in defense of Nermin Þükriye Akar Özordulu, Talat Musa Asoðlu and Kaya Saz who are currently in jails, in isolation, for having a conscience and acting upon it. Their crime—the translation and dissemination of information about abuses in Turkish “F” type isolation cells.

The general case made by the editors is that all poets are concerned with freedom, though for most it’s freedom of words and expression and not necessarily freedom from oppression or imprisonment. To echo the introduction, not all the poetry in this volume is bold-faced regarding state-sponsored censorship but nearly all speak to freedom in its many forms.

The poets presented are mostly either from Montreal or Chilean, which adds to variety of expressions. Katherine Beeman offers up the evocative “Algonquin” -

The other side of the trees,
the sound of your boots
thunk thudding behind me,
eyes of pine
eyes of stream
together
we are forest,
riding the turtles back,
knowable
canoeable.

On the bolder spectrum, Endre Farkas writes “Think” –

When we say terrorists
We do not think of Coca-Cola or McDonald’s

When we say weapons of mass destruction
We do think of pharmaceuticals or agribusiness

When we think of fundamentalists
We do think of Wal-Mart or Nike

When we think of oppression
We do not think of multinationals or cartels

When we think of poverty
We do not think of imagination or reason

When we think
We do not think

The editors are up front that none of the poets in this volume are Turkish; what unifies the included poets is that they are all Canadians opposed to torture in any form and, in particular, to the treatment of their Turkish brethren. This collection continues the tradition that while poets and artists are often the first victims of government repression, poets and artists in free societies have the availability to draw attention to those being persecuted.

The Forestry Diversification Project is a wonderful collection of poets from the capital city of British Columbia’s interior. Gathering from the contributor’s bio’s, this is the first publication for most and each presents about half dozen or so poems. Rob Budde, a fine poet in his own right and Creative Writing professor at the University of Northern British Columbia, gives no indication as to how these poets came together and, I assume in the interest of fairness, they are presented in alphabetical order.

As gathered from the title, the poems are a mixed bunch – some are nearly epics, some are haikuishly short’n’sweet; some are prose, some are verse; some are full course meals, some are whiffs of something wonderful. Some tend to return to the same themes in their writing but hopefully a nudge or two from some fellow poets will get them to branch out and encourage the adventuresome spirit. Here’s hoping these poets are encouraging each other (and from Prince George’s elder poets) at some regular get-together.

From Michal Latala, there is a wonderful string of very short poems titled “Eleven Flies”:

IV

The black fly feeds patiently
In its burrow of neck flesh

…

VII

Bleed me, the fly whispers:
The smaller things parasitically obey.

From Kim Bonnell, “Displacing Injuries” is a fine and well-wrought piece with a hint of magic realism:

she grasps the edge of the wound
marring her hands
her working hands

she pulls it
watches the scarring flesh
shift
an etch-a-sketch
scar tissue magnet

she pulls it
up her arm
to the hard shoulder
and down the chest
she pulls it
to her belly
where the wound will not impede
her working hands

A minor quibble is with the physical book as the poems could have been presented more sympathetically to the reader. Its trade-paperback size is a little clumsy, the heavy sans serif typeface is not terribly sensitive to the poems, and the arrangement of the some of the poems have them awkwardly carrying over to the next page. Yes, this is akin to critiquing a gift by the wrapping paper but here’s hoping UNBC Press can present its poets with more care for what will hopefully be a regular series of the best of what Prince George poets have to offer.