Poems for a Small Park
56 pages, 7 x 7
16 colour photographs
Paperback
Release Date:01 Dec 2008
ISBN:9781897425336
Blodgett wrote his poems for a small park in English and some inFrench, but was able to have some of them translated into Cree, Michif,Chinese, and Ukrainian. This reflects Edmonton’s uniquemulticultural ambience and the roles of diverse cultures in the makingof the city.
The powerful images and thoughtful metaphors in these short lyricsshow readers the connections between Canadian nature (even within citylimits) and the sublime, especially in the overwhelming silence we cansense outdoors – if we pay attention. The poet speaks to changeby helping us see natural phenomena around us in a different light eachtime we read his poems.
Blodgett is known as a highly literary poet, and he does notdisappoint in these small lyrics, yet they are clear, almosttransparent, in their use of plain language, highly compressed andpointed.
E.D. Blodgett, FRSC, is UniversityProfessor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University ofAlberta, and holds the Louis Desrochers Chair in Études Canadiennes atits Campus Saint-Jean. He has published 18 books of poetry, two ofwhich won the Governor General's Award, as well as Five-PartInvention: A History of Literary history in Canada. In 2007, hewas appointed Poet Laureate of Edmonton.
