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But for Now |
eBook Available
An exploration of the hinterland between the havens of faith and the rough terrain of doubt.
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.
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.
Details
Part of the Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series (number 27 in series)
102 Pages, 5 x 7.5
ISBN 9780773542907
August 2013
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Gordon Johnston lives in Peterborough where he taught poetry for forty years at Trent University.
Until Then 3
Dream Gravity 4
Of Interest 7
The Rivers of God Are Full of Water 8
What I Have, What I Am, What I Do 9
Visiting Poet 10
Liquor Control on Cumberland Street 11
Speaking Volumes 12
Safely Home 13
Harboured 15
The Detroit Institute of Art, at Night, after the Attacks of 9 / 11 16
Poem in Which a Gentleman is Washing His Hands, in a Far Room 17
Il Marrone Mondo 18
To Giverny 20
The Workers 22
Agreeable Noise 27
Beesong 28
The Noisy Ones 29
Bird Brains 30
Two Gulls, High Above, at Noon 31
Pianissimo 32
The Bach Suite 33
Practical Order on Road 110 South Near Stratford 37
Variance on Road 110 North Near Stratford 38
Plenitude and Conformity, in the Leaside Longo’s 39
Sidetracked, at Charny 40
Minor Apocalyptics at Home 41
A New Psalm, of Accurate Praise 42
A New Psalm, of Uncertainty 44
A New Psalm, of Vaulting 45
A New Psalm, in a Deep Pit 46
A New Psalm, of Unknown Ironies 47
A New Psalm, of the Oboist 48
A New Psalm, of Strangeness 49
Hard Place 51
Habeas Corpus 53
An End of Reading 55
Credo 57
Pope Innocent’s Holiday in Subiaco, August 1202 73
Born Wrong in Holy Week 74
End 75
Shrine 76
Caged 77
Messe 78
Stay 79
Nostalgia 80
The Walt Whitman Project 81
Anna’s Lovers 83
Cedarsmell: Al Purdy 85
Furniture 86
Sweet One Hundreds 87
Your Hands, Your Eyes 88
With One of a Set of Duelling Pistols 90
The Shape of Dust 91
Finally the End of Poetry 92
Notes and Acknowledgments 93
Dream Gravity 4
Of Interest 7
The Rivers of God Are Full of Water 8
What I Have, What I Am, What I Do 9
Visiting Poet 10
Liquor Control on Cumberland Street 11
Speaking Volumes 12
Safely Home 13
Harboured 15
The Detroit Institute of Art, at Night, after the Attacks of 9 / 11 16
Poem in Which a Gentleman is Washing His Hands, in a Far Room 17
Il Marrone Mondo 18
To Giverny 20
The Workers 22
Agreeable Noise 27
Beesong 28
The Noisy Ones 29
Bird Brains 30
Two Gulls, High Above, at Noon 31
Pianissimo 32
The Bach Suite 33
Practical Order on Road 110 South Near Stratford 37
Variance on Road 110 North Near Stratford 38
Plenitude and Conformity, in the Leaside Longo’s 39
Sidetracked, at Charny 40
Minor Apocalyptics at Home 41
A New Psalm, of Accurate Praise 42
A New Psalm, of Uncertainty 44
A New Psalm, of Vaulting 45
A New Psalm, in a Deep Pit 46
A New Psalm, of Unknown Ironies 47
A New Psalm, of the Oboist 48
A New Psalm, of Strangeness 49
Hard Place 51
Habeas Corpus 53
An End of Reading 55
Credo 57
Pope Innocent’s Holiday in Subiaco, August 1202 73
Born Wrong in Holy Week 74
End 75
Shrine 76
Caged 77
Messe 78
Stay 79
Nostalgia 80
The Walt Whitman Project 81
Anna’s Lovers 83
Cedarsmell: Al Purdy 85
Furniture 86
Sweet One Hundreds 87
Your Hands, Your Eyes 88
With One of a Set of Duelling Pistols 90
The Shape of Dust 91
Finally the End of Poetry 92
Notes and Acknowledgments 93
