Spring Trances in the Control Emerald Night and the Cenozoic Asylum

by Christopher Dewdney

Genres: Poetry

74 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1982

About the author

Christopher Dewdney has served as writer-in-residence at Trent, Western, and York universities. Featured in Ron Mann’s film Poetry in Motion with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Michael Ondaatje, and Tom Waits, Dewdney has presented his groundbreaking poetics across North America and Europe.

Reviews

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

More 'fossil memory', more geology & remote control, Dewndey themes, "A Natural History of Southwestern Ontario Books I & II" from an unnatural intelligence.

"There is nothing arbitrary in the predestined universe of the past. Emerald crystal caves in hot black tar. Cloudy airport haze and warm afternoons. Basement parties & guests annihilated in gasoline pools that burst into flame. Moon passing behind fast night clouds. Hot wind and moth tunnels traced by pheromones. There are conferences to which we are interminably drawn over which forces other than human preside.

"One hears the nervous tapping of fingers.

"I am walking south on Wharncliffe Road, everything is working by remote control."

[Clement Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of Wallace Stevens and other poets whose language is muscular and sometimes dense. Christopher Dewdney will one day be recognized as one of the great 20th-21st century poets. The problem for many modern readers is that Dewdney's imagery is strongly based in the real world, both ancient (geological history) and modern.