Home from Iceland, Review in Print

We arrived home from Iceland last night, where we spent a week driving around various parts of the country and camping at night. Trip of a lifetime. Iceland might just be the greatest place on earth. Most of our trip was spent in "the nature," as they say there, but we snuck in a bit of culture, too, including a reading hosted by Angela Rawlings, who is living in Reykjavik these days. It was a great literary exchange between people from all over the world (Iceland, Canada, Columbia, Germany, Palestine and Hungary). As visitors to Iceland, Rachel and I were featured readers, along with German fiction and children's writer Finn-Ole Heinrich. Here are some pictures from our trip. Just a few that I snapped on my tablet. We'll be uploading more soon. When we got in last night, I found issue 68 of Arc waiting for me. In it, you will find a long review by yours truly of Bruce Taylor's knockout book No End in Strangeness. One of the best poetry books of the 2000's, folks. As always, much else of interest within the covers of Arc, so I'm looking forward to digging in. Once I get caught up...

Attack of the Strawman Zombies

I was amused to see this truly awful essay reanimated. Since the zombie apocalypse is clearly upon us, I thought I'd share my response to it, from around 8 years ago in Books in Canada.

BAFFLE

When every little scent's intense, intensity

itself grows tedious. Not every sensation

can be sensational if we wish to remain

whole and sane. Holy thoughts and sacred

sentiments should be consigned to holidays

where they belong, so that the mundane

and unremarkable might also grow.

I know a woman who can hear an ant

gnawing on a seed deep within a fissure

on a beam. This doesn't lead to rapture—

it causes pain. I take a walk around

the garden walls I've built as baffle

to the fascinating marvels of my life.