Table of Contents

LIMESTONE BARRENS
The Role of Calcium in Evolution
Book Rock
Cape Norman
Park Office
Barrens Willow
Wind Shadow, L’Anse aux Meadows
Revelations
Notes on Burnt Cape
Location
Warm Shallow Sea
 
OUTSIDE
Dividing Island
Marine Drive
Body and Soul
Under Blomidon Face
Tree near York Harbour
Swoop
Inside the Boiler of the ss Ethie
Beyond Names and Laws
Wissembourg, Alsace
Amorgos
Sunburnt on Naxos
There Is No One to Blame
Bloodroot
Mail from My Pregnant Daughter
 
ONCE
 
OUTSIDE
Removals
It Is a Blue Dome
Collecting, Bay of Islands
Uplands
Skink’s Tail
Lean-to
Beating the Bounds
Under Mad Dog Lake
Battle at Halfway Point
Melancholy Facts
Bear Brains
Smudging the Map
Blomidon Head
In the Winter
After Ten Days Together
Without Maps
Kiparissia
Tomb of Clytemnestra
Mystra
Mycenae
 
COLONIAL BUILDING ARCHIVES
VA13 Humber Mouth
A10-142 Settlement at Mount Moriah
A10-150 Holloway: John’s Beach
A20-86 Postcard: Cement Plant, 1955
A30-160 Building the Paper Mill
VA28 Postcard: Paper Machine
A30-158 Wood Supply
A30-161 Mill Manager’s House, Corner Brook
B10-38 Lee Wulff Fishing the Upper Humber
B10-39 Lee Wulff Fishing the Upper Humber
B10-40 Exploits River
B10-43 Self-portrait, Serpentine Valley
 
Acknowledgements

About the Author

John Steffler was the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada from 2006 to 2008. His previous books of poetry include The Grey Islands, That Night We Were Ravenous, winner of the Atlantic Poetry Prize, and Helix: New and Selected Poems, winner of the Newfoundland and Labrador Poetry Prize. Steffler is also the author of the award-winning novel The Afterlife of George Cartwright.

Reviews

Praise for John Steffler:
"In a profound way, John Steffler's poetry is concerned with cultural identity and memory, and provides a touchstone for Canadians seeking a way to move forward as a nation…. What makes John Steffler's poetry so valuable is that his consideration of the philosophical problems of memory, history and identity speaks directly to key preoccupations in Canadian culture today."
— from Letter of Nomination for the Parliamentary Poet Laureate

"John Steffler is Canada's most sensuously passionate writer. Reading him, we are put in touch with the pure erotic draw which the world exercises upon him. The acuity of his perception, and the size of his heart, make his poems an essential part of our literature."
— Don McKay, Griffin Poetry Prize winner for Strike/Slip

"Steffler paints the wilderness in a language that often 'knocks and hisses and crackles,' but nothing of the poetry here sounds contrived or artificial. [Steffler's work] subtly nudges the reader along, never falling prey to the usual grab-bag of bells and whistles. It is a work that teems with images that are celebratory of life, ones that quietly ring with the music of the land."
— Montreal Gazette

"John Steffler is one of our finest lyric poets in mid-career."
— Ken Babstock, Globe and Mail

"[John Steffler's poems] reveal an unexpected side to the exotic and hidden dimensions of the familiar…. Part keen-eyed naturalist, part exuberant philosopher, Steffler memorializes the terrain of his beloved Newfoundland, in particular, with disarming whimsy and grace. His descriptions are vivid and metaphysically resonant, too."
— Barbara Carey, Toronto Star