From "Anna's Lovers" Our houses glow both from within and on the outside: their night lights and an almost perfect and wintry moon. The phrase "but for now" means among other things "making do," as if we had to settle for the bare minimum. In But for Now, Gordon Johnston presents poems where the mortal world is more than enough because there is more to it than the merely mortal and where it is possible to hear beyond the outmoded clanking of inherited religious vocabularies. These poems find moments of grace in chance occurrences and through a wide range of styles and methods, they choreograph the random casual events of our existence. Northrop Frye famously asked, "Where is here?" These poems instead ask, "When is now?" Engaged with worlds of waiting and of doing, with enduring and healing, But for Now celebrates music and noise, speech and silence, and asserts that for all the darkness at the edges, there is something shining at the centre of the painting.
Authors
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- C811/.54
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- General Note
- Poems Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9780773542907 9780773590076
- LCCN
- PR9199.3.J64678
- LCCN Item number
- B88 2013eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (95 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00233122 (OCoLC)851897259 (CaOOCEL)446132
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- The Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series 3
- Copyright 5
- Contents 6
- UNTIL THEN 10
- DREAM GRAVITY 11
- OF INTEREST 14
- THE RIVERS OF GOD ARE FULL OF WATER 15
- WHAT I HAVE, WHAT I AM, WHAT I DO 16
- VISITING POET 17
- LIQUOR CONTROL ON CUMBERLAND STREET 18
- SPEAKING VOLUMES 19
- SAFELY HOME 20
- HARBOURED 22
- THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ART, AT NIGHT, AFTER THE ATTACKS OF 9/11 23
- POEM IN WHICH A GENTLEMAN IS WASHING HIS HANDS, IN A FAR ROOM 24
- IL MARRONE MONDO 25
- TO GIVERNY 27
- THE WORKERS 29
- AGREEABLE NOISE 34
- BEESONG 35
- THE NOISY ONES 36
- BIRD BRAINS 37
- TWO GULLS, HIGH ABOVE, AT NOON 38
- PIANISSIMO 39
- THE BACH SUITE 40
- PRACTICAL ORDER ON ROAD 110 SOUTH NEAR STRATFORD 44
- VARIANCE ON ROAD 110 NORTH NEAR STRATFORD 45
- PLENITUDE AND CONFORMITY, IN THE LEASIDE LONGO’S 46
- SIDETRACKED, AT CHARNY 47
- MINOR APOCALYPTICS AT HOME 48
- A NEW PSALM, OF ACCURATE PRAISE 49
- A NEW PSALM, OF UNCERTAINTY 51
- A NEW PSALM, OF VAULTING 52
- A NEW PSALM, IN A DEEP PIT 53
- A NEW PSALM, OF UNKNOWN IRONIES 54
- A NEW PSALM, OF THE OBOIST 55
- A NEW PSALM, OF STRANGENESS 56
- HARD PLACE 58
- HABEAS CORPUS 60
- AN END OF READING 62
- CREDO 64
- POPE INNOCENT’S HOLIDAY IN SUBIACO, AUGUST 1202 80
- BORN WRONG IN HOLY WEEK 81
- END 82
- SHRINE 83
- CAGED 84
- MESSE 85
- STAY 86
- NOSTALGIA 87
- THE WALT WHITMAN PROJECT 88
- ANNA’S LOVERS 90
- CEDARSMELL: AL PURDY 92
- FURNITURE 93
- SWEET ONE HUNDREDS 94
- YOUR HANDS, YOUR EYES 95
- WITH ONE OF A SET OF DUELLING PISTOLS 97
- THE SHAPE OF DUST 98
- FINALLY THE END OF POETRY 99
- NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 100
