Bad Engine: New and Selected Poems

by Michael Dennis, Stuart Ross (Editor & Introduction)

Bad Engine brings together mostly revised versions of about one hundred poems selected from Dennis’s published work, along with several dozen new poems. This volume, introduced and edited by Dennis’s long-time friend, the poet and editor Stuart Ross, marks a milestone in the career of a homegrown, no-bullshit, tells-it-likes-he-sees-it populist bard. Here the reader will find a rollicking tale of drinking with racists, poignant prayers for quiet nights with lovers, raw narratives of childhood abuse, defiant anthems of a body broken by sports injuries, a mindful meditation about a stoned dragonfly, and the not-quite-resigned laughter of a man smashing away at a keyboard for four decades and becoming neither rich nor famous.

Genres: Poetry

176 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2017

About the author

Michael Dennis was born in London, Ontario, in 1956. His first book, quarter on its edge, was published in 1979. Since then, he has published more than 30 books and chapbooks, and his work has been widely published in journals, magazines and anthologies. In 2020, Michael received the Special Recognition Award for Commitment & Devotion to Small Press, presented by the Meet the Presses collective in Toronto.