Paul Vermeersch examines the forces that divide us and isolate us as individuals in both the natural and man-made worlds, at the moments when those worlds intersect, and in the places where we live and work. During a violent row between teenage boys, a starling explodes like a hand grenade. A clutter of inbred cats plays out the rise and fall of mankind in a secluded country barn. While driving his girlfriend home, a young man is forced to alter the course of his future by the sudden appearance of a plague of toads. And in the harrowing final sequence, we are taken on a tour through a fragile city verging on its own ruin. As fantastic as they are visceral, these poems shed new light on our darkest corners and take us deep between the walls, those that are thrust up before us as well as those of our own making.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Vermeersh is one of Canada’s best young poets.… [The poems in Between the Walls] explore the tension between the natural world and the artifice of our society, and the collision between the public sphere and the secret corners of our private lives.”
–Vancouver Province
“Vermeersch transcends time and self through luminous turns of language and singular states of mind.”
–Canadian Literature
“Vermeersch illustrates his true skills in the delicate simplicity of words. He is at the bright beginning of a long career.”
–Broken Pencil
“The poems are sharply observed and pitch-perfect.… both warped, and wise.”
–Toronto Star
–Vancouver Province
“Vermeersch transcends time and self through luminous turns of language and singular states of mind.”
–Canadian Literature
“Vermeersch illustrates his true skills in the delicate simplicity of words. He is at the bright beginning of a long career.”
–Broken Pencil
“The poems are sharply observed and pitch-perfect.… both warped, and wise.”
–Toronto Star
About the Author
Paul Vermeersch is the author of three collections of poetry: The Fat Kid, Burn, a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award, and, most recently, Between the Walls. He is also the editor of the anthology The I.V. Lounge Reader. His poetry has been published widely in literary journals and magazines across the country. He lives in Toronto, where he is poetry editor for Insomniac Press.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Urban Poet: Short But Interesting,
This review is from: Between the Walls (Paperback)
I was looking for books by Ezra Pound at a small bookstore on Bloor in Toronto, in the Annex, and by chance was introduced to a young poet named Paul Vermeersch. Poetry is no longer the center of literary excitement and the young poet had some time to spare.
After a chat he mentioned a few books of poetry that he like including Dylan Thomas "Collected Poems" and a similar book by Wallace Stevens. Also, he showed me some of his own books, and in particular the present book "Between the Walls." This is a short collection of his poems. It is a slim 80 plus pages. The topics are mostly abstract and urban, but not entirely. He has for example is a poem on the "Embrace of the Sea." He divides the poems into three groups: - "Garbage Day," - "As Fields Become Birds Become Clouds," and - "As Is." It is hard to generalize because the poets are a mixture if impressions and subjects and feelings mostly set in Ontario. There are a number of urban settings and subjects but also he returns to his home town, and elsewhere he has poems about animals, orchards, toads, and primetime. It is an entertaining collection of poems, which has a certain freshness. I liked "As It Is On the Edge Of Town" which is about children playing among cast-off refrigerators. The poet and his writings are caught up some where between his home town in Brights Grove on the southern shores of Lake Huron and urban Toronto on Lake Ontario.
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