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Small Fires |
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Poems that illustrate the stories that lie buried in landscapes and in human lives.
We come / to kneel at the doorway, / to peer into that kind of / dark. To think our way / backwards, listening.
Tracing a series of journeys, real and imagined, Kelly Norah Drukker’s Small Fires opens with a section of poems set on Inis Mór, a remote, Irish-speaking island off the west coast of County Galway, where the poet-as-speaker discovers the ways in which remnants of the island’s early Christian monastic culture brush up against island life in the twenty-first century.
Also present is a series of poems set in the Midi-Pyrénées and in the countryside around Lyon. Linked to the shorter poems in the collection by landscape, theme, and tone is a set of longer narrative poems that give voice to imagined speakers who are, each in a different way, living on the margins. The first describes a young emigrant woman’s crossing from Ireland to Canada in the early twentieth century, where she must sacrifice her tie to the land for the uncertain freedom of a journey by sea, while a second depicts the lives of silk workers living under oppressive conditions in Lyon in the 1830s.
In detailed and musical language, the poems in Small Fires highlight aspects of landscape and culture in regions that are haunted by marginal and silenced histories. The collection concludes with a long poem written as a response to American writer Paul Monette’s autobiographical work Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir.
Tracing a series of journeys, real and imagined, Kelly Norah Drukker’s Small Fires opens with a section of poems set on Inis Mór, a remote, Irish-speaking island off the west coast of County Galway, where the poet-as-speaker discovers the ways in which remnants of the island’s early Christian monastic culture brush up against island life in the twenty-first century.
Also present is a series of poems set in the Midi-Pyrénées and in the countryside around Lyon. Linked to the shorter poems in the collection by landscape, theme, and tone is a set of longer narrative poems that give voice to imagined speakers who are, each in a different way, living on the margins. The first describes a young emigrant woman’s crossing from Ireland to Canada in the early twentieth century, where she must sacrifice her tie to the land for the uncertain freedom of a journey by sea, while a second depicts the lives of silk workers living under oppressive conditions in Lyon in the 1830s.
In detailed and musical language, the poems in Small Fires highlight aspects of landscape and culture in regions that are haunted by marginal and silenced histories. The collection concludes with a long poem written as a response to American writer Paul Monette’s autobiographical work Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir.
Details
Part of the Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series (number 36 in series)
124 Pages, 5 x 7.5
ISBN 9780773547704
July 2016
Formats: Paperback, eBook
“If one were to make a colour palette for Small Fires, it would be a watercolour of stones and derelict wood greys, dusky blues, a smear of rainy green through a window, the creosote of town, as rage by morning dies down to “murmur / through stovepipes.”” Montreal Review of Books
“… a petit and exquisite book of journeys. Much more than a poetic travelogue, it is a quiet homage to places and cultures that Drukker inhabits fully and allows herself to be smitten by. Drukker speaks clearly in language transparent as wind, attuned to the beauty and pain of the world and its histories. A highly recommended read.” The Goose
“Drukker possesses the kind of eye that locates and zeroes in on the most important detail in her field of vision, yet also somehow gives the impression of seeing everything at once. The result is far more than poems-as-travelogue, then: it’s a moving meditation on place and belonging.” The Montreal Gazette
“The power of this work derives from a careful letting objects speak for themselves, where details tell all there is to know. Like love letters that tear apart brutal secrets of land, legacy, and the breaking down that occurs in the shadows, this collection…resonates with the rawness of displacement and belonging.” A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry jury
“The poems are deliberate and passionate, sensuous. Drukker invites the reader not only into her thoughts, but into the landscape and into the spirit of the people. The reader can smell the atmosphere, see the clouds, feel the rain, hear the gulls.” Concordia University First Book Prize jury
“Small Fires, makes a quietly strong debut. Equal parts still and motioned, with strands picturesque and narrative, the poems take us to the landscapes and histories of the remote Irish-speaking island of Inis Mór, to the Midi-Pyrénées, and to the countryside surrounding Lyon. Drukker's poem, “At the Seven Churches (Na Seacht dTeampaill)” rings in the mind and sets us up tonally for the rest of the book. [It] is small and musical - like a bell itself. The subtly musical properties of this poem reveal a restrained but sophisticated hand...” Contemporary Verse 2
“… a petit and exquisite book of journeys. Much more than a poetic travelogue, it is a quiet homage to places and cultures that Drukker inhabits fully and allows herself to be smitten by. Drukker speaks clearly in language transparent as wind, attuned to the beauty and pain of the world and its histories. A highly recommended read.” The Goose
“Drukker possesses the kind of eye that locates and zeroes in on the most important detail in her field of vision, yet also somehow gives the impression of seeing everything at once. The result is far more than poems-as-travelogue, then: it’s a moving meditation on place and belonging.” The Montreal Gazette
“The power of this work derives from a careful letting objects speak for themselves, where details tell all there is to know. Like love letters that tear apart brutal secrets of land, legacy, and the breaking down that occurs in the shadows, this collection…resonates with the rawness of displacement and belonging.” A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry jury
“The poems are deliberate and passionate, sensuous. Drukker invites the reader not only into her thoughts, but into the landscape and into the spirit of the people. The reader can smell the atmosphere, see the clouds, feel the rain, hear the gulls.” Concordia University First Book Prize jury
“Small Fires, makes a quietly strong debut. Equal parts still and motioned, with strands picturesque and narrative, the poems take us to the landscapes and histories of the remote Irish-speaking island of Inis Mór, to the Midi-Pyrénées, and to the countryside surrounding Lyon. Drukker's poem, “At the Seven Churches (Na Seacht dTeampaill)” rings in the mind and sets us up tonally for the rest of the book. [It] is small and musical - like a bell itself. The subtly musical properties of this poem reveal a restrained but sophisticated hand...” Contemporary Verse 2
Kelly Norah Drukker’s work has appeared in journals in Canada, the UK, and Ireland. She lives in Montreal.
CONTENTS
I
On Inis Mór
At the Seven Churches (Na Seacht dTeampaill) 3
East
The Ferry In 7
Night on the Dark Earth 9
When it blows 10
At Teampall Bheanáin 11
October 12
The Wild Goat 13
Cill Éinne Beach 14
Niamh 15
On Inis Mór 17
Village
Two 19
Blow-ins 20
Sweater Shop 21
Roots 22
The Bodhrán Player 23
Wild Bird’s Song 25
Village Life 27
Sea Legs 28
West
Storm Beach 29
Centre: Eochaill 30
Grave (Leaba Dhiarmuda agus Ghráinne) 31
Burial Ground 32
The Hunter’s Path 33
Cill Mhuirbhigh Beach 35
Pre-electric 38
I’ll never know (after reading Synge) 39
Storms in Spring 40
Night’s Work 42
Island’s End 43
II
Another Winter’s Child
Another Winter’s Child 47
III
The Vine
The Offering 59
The Wild Boar 61
August, Vallée de la Barousse 63
The Vine 66
Les Cagots 67
IV
The Silken Threads
The Silken Threads 77
The Burning House
Rose 87
For Émile Nelligan 90
The Burning House 92
In Azé (Ars Poetica) 109
Notes 111
Acknowledgments 113
I
On Inis Mór
At the Seven Churches (Na Seacht dTeampaill) 3
East
The Ferry In 7
Night on the Dark Earth 9
When it blows 10
At Teampall Bheanáin 11
October 12
The Wild Goat 13
Cill Éinne Beach 14
Niamh 15
On Inis Mór 17
Village
Two 19
Blow-ins 20
Sweater Shop 21
Roots 22
The Bodhrán Player 23
Wild Bird’s Song 25
Village Life 27
Sea Legs 28
West
Storm Beach 29
Centre: Eochaill 30
Grave (Leaba Dhiarmuda agus Ghráinne) 31
Burial Ground 32
The Hunter’s Path 33
Cill Mhuirbhigh Beach 35
Pre-electric 38
I’ll never know (after reading Synge) 39
Storms in Spring 40
Night’s Work 42
Island’s End 43
II
Another Winter’s Child
Another Winter’s Child 47
III
The Vine
The Offering 59
The Wild Boar 61
August, Vallée de la Barousse 63
The Vine 66
Les Cagots 67
IV
The Silken Threads
The Silken Threads 77
The Burning House
Rose 87
For Émile Nelligan 90
The Burning House 92
In Azé (Ars Poetica) 109
Notes 111
Acknowledgments 113
Author's website
Kelly Norah Drukker reading at the Atwater Poetry Project
AELAQ's "Inside the Frozen Mammoth" Podcast - Episode 4: Xui Yiwei & Kelly Norah Drukker
Review in The Goose by Emily McGiffin
French translation of Small Fires, Petit feux
Review in La Recrue by Joëlle Pelletier-Nolet for the translated edition of Small Fires (Petit feux)
Kelly Norah Drukker reading at the Atwater Poetry Project
AELAQ's "Inside the Frozen Mammoth" Podcast - Episode 4: Xui Yiwei & Kelly Norah Drukker
Review in The Goose by Emily McGiffin
French translation of Small Fires, Petit feux
Review in La Recrue by Joëlle Pelletier-Nolet for the translated edition of Small Fires (Petit feux)
Winner
QWF A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry
(2016)
Winner
QWF Concordia University First Book Prize
(2016)
Finaliste
Le Grand Prix du livre de Montréal
(2016)
QWF A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry
(2016)
Winner
QWF Concordia University First Book Prize
(2016)
Finaliste
Le Grand Prix du livre de Montréal
(2016)
