Customer Reviews

Between the Walls

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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.