The few reviews I've read of editors Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier's Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets have been glowingly positive. Most refer to a nine-year gap since the couple's last collection of poet "greats," anthologized and distributed in schools across the country. That instalment may have had its share of brilliance, but this latest version does not measure up.

Of course, there are a number of new talents in this second coming, but certainly not enough to take into account the multiple varieties of style "breathing fire" among Canada's diverse poet talents. For example, there's too much focus on the narrative poem, and no real concrete or abstract representatives, except perhaps for the edgy Nathalie Stephens. This is an unfortunate but predictable oversight from the editors, given their own poetic leanings and reputations based on the narrative form.

To be eligible to submit work-they received about 300 submissions-one had to have been born between 1970 and 1980, a repeat of the first book requesting a 1960-1970 grouping. Most of these young poets are already quite successful, and many have studied at the scarce but prestigious creative writing programs across the country, such as the University of Victoria, where coincidentally one of the editors is a professor.

There are a few poems in the collection which warrant particular recognition however, such as Shane Rhodes' Day and Night The Sea Whispered Thalassa, where he writes lyrically of loss: "In her voice there was / no quivering / but solidity as from one who has found / the flaw in matter [...] her mother's body grew cold / as love can, as a thing being written about can."

Matt Radar's selections include glimpses into vacant human conditions, as in Falling: "I pissed my pants just for / the warmth in my crotch, that one last sloppy kiss. / Falling and falling is lonely business."

Alternatively, Amanda Lamarche, among others, has moments of merit, but unnecessary fragments could have been severed from the whole. Warren Heiti's poems are vivid and lore-like, while Jason Heroux's works tend to deflect the innovation he so tries to tie in. Tammy Armstrong and Triny Finlay generally compose striking imagery, while Ray Hsu occasionally seizes attention with harder fare, as in Benjamin: Nine Epilogues, 4: "A hungry man has a fist. One for himself and another for the man beside him. A fist can feed a baby and can build a house. A fist can be safe."

Essentially this collection has value, but too often illustrates evidence of worked over styles, which leave me parched for a better generation of greats.

BREATHING FIRE 2: CANADA'S NEW POETS
NIGHTWOOD EDITIONS, P200, $24

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You're a poet and you don't even know it.     There's something rather comfy about sitting back and listening to a well read poem or story by it's author. I admit, there are lots of strange literary creations that still have me scratching my head but artistic licensing aside, poets and I mean good poets, have the uncanny ability to capture in words all of what I would have said had I been there too. Poetry is not for everyone but there is so much history in the written prose dating back to Shakespeare, song and film that has at it's very foundation descriptions of what the author saw, was inspired by and came away capturing in words. I hope that our authors and poets continue to be inspired by everything that others take for granted.
Bernadette Isobel McCaffrey		February 9th, 2005
Good on ya, Wanda!     I agree with Wanda that, not only in the anthology being reviewed here, but in general, concrete and abstract poetry are under-represented in today's literary scene. It's not that poets aren't writing the stuff; rather, it seems that editors prefer including "safer" narrative poems. Reviews like Wanda's are an important step towards formal egalitarianism.
Jesse Ferguson		February 9th, 2005
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