Exploding into Night

by Sandy Pool

An emotional intensity and metaphysical landscape reveal the dark spheres of a collective conscience in this beautiful yet haunting narrative poem. This tale, with its dazzling turns and deafening silence, delves deep into the heart of a grizzly Toronto murder, offering a stark reappraisal of urban existence and its heartache. A narrative eroticism that presents multiple viewpoints drives readers through blocks of prose poetry and reshapes the night someone was killed in the Parkdale area of Toronto.

Genres: Poetry

56 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2009

Reviews

[A Hippie's Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exploding Into Night is elegantly charted. The story is told with raw description. Extremely sexy. At times, raunchy. It's always vivid with a great suspense, and mystery.

The story is set up like a wall of Polaroids. I imagined looking at black and white photos of each scene as I read what was written. Every page, a poem equal to a snap shot. Quick, to the point and poignant. Each page holds a poem, a story in itself. Like a scrap book of photographs, this is a scrap book of poetry. The poems weave the plot, one into the other.

This was a great read with twists and turns throughout. As soon as I would settle in a little, a word, or a line would take me in a different direction than where I thought it was going.

Although it is clear this is tailored toward a real life murder, I continued to ask myself is this a murder of flesh or a murder of spirit.

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a lot more promise to this book than there is in the sense of a finished piece. Sometimes the pieces of the poem stand out on their own as a separate poem, each section has its own page, and other times I think the sections should be together on one page because by themselves they a. don't stand out as a poem and b. don't hold up on the page so well surrounded by all the blankness because the particular section doesn't have very much imagery to hold interest.

The music of poetry comes from not only the form but also the content and the word choices, etc. and there are sections that fall a little flat if only because they, in my opinion, ought to be attached to the preceding or following section of poem to continue the momentum and music. Granted, making the sections longer might throw off the visual balance, but that's not always a bad thing to do something that skews.

There is quite a bit of visceral and beautiful imagery and language as well as some over-used phrases I find in poetry such as "true, and not true", which some poets do because it makes them seem (probably more to themselves) contradictory and yet deep-thinking where it may actually just hide lazy writing. However, in this instance I feel the phrase's use gets a pass because it's followed up by "coming back that night was a mistake" whereas in other cases when authors use the "True, not true" turn they will often leave it there instead of continuing forward with the idea.

In the end, this chapbook didn't keep me going, but poetry is intensely more personal than fiction and I simply wasn't hooked enough.

[Miz Moffatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exploding into Night spins the disorienting, visceral realities of coldblooded murder into cutting poetic prose. Drawing from a recent murder in Toronto's Parkdale area, Sandy Pool's narrative poem explores the threatening silence of the urban landscape as it flickers between the final moments of the murdered and the murderer. Each word carries a serrated edge that cuts into the very consciousness of the community at large. Brilliant, brutal, and bloodied—even avowed poetry haters will find much to celebrate in this book.

Ideal for: CSI junkies with a hidden poetic predilection; Readers in need of a good poetic shock; Jaded poets who need a reminder as to what poetry should be.

[Erin Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is gripping and strangely beautiful.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book of poems, though the story was sad and based on a real life murder.