Susan Glickman

  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • On Finding a Copy of Pigeon in the Hospital Bookstore
    • Poem about your laugh
    • Punish your book
    • Summertime
  • Fiction
    • Background
    • Extract from The Violin Lover
  • Nonfiction
    • Klibansky Award Speech
  • Children’s Books
  • A Note on Teaching Poetry
  • Other Writing
    • Angels, Not Polarities
    • Dictionnaire des idées reçues
    • Found Money
    • Maiden or Crone
    • My Life with Northrop Frye
    • Obituary for Zitner
    • On the Line
    • Second Person Impersonal
    • The Better Mother
    • The Violin in History
  • Editing
  • News
  • Bio
    • Stuff about me floating around the web
  • Cartoons
  • My Art
You are here: Home » 2012 » November

Archive for month: November, 2012

Review of The Smooth Yarrow in The Toronto Star

17 Nov 2012 / 0 Comments / in Reviews, The Blog/by Susan Glickman

The Smooth Yarrow by Susan Glickman

Published on Friday November 16, 2012

The Smooth Yarrow, Signal Editions, 64 pages, $18
1 of 2
Image

By Barbara Carey Poetry Columnist

“The universe is a cabinet of mysteries we tiptoe by, wondering,” Susan Glickman writes in one of the poems in The Smooth Yarrow. That capacity for wonder is a hallmark of this Toronto writer’s appealing sixth collection.

The title refers to an herb traditionally believed to have both medicinal and magical properties. In keeping with that motif, many of the poems in the book’s first section address frailty, both physical and emotional, and our attempts to heal ourselves — as well as the intangibles that affect our lives. Glickman also contemplates failings of the social order: in “Witch’s Tit,” for instance, she muses on humankind’s tendency throughout history to persecute others on the basis of appearance.

Glickman notes that the yarrow looks fragile but is actually resilient. The poet’s own work is somewhat deceptive: she writes with clarity and unassuming grace about a range of subjects, including the death of her father (in the book’s most poignant poem, “Breath”). She’s also capable of broad humour (the iconic poet Rilke is depicted lazing in a hammock and sipping a Long Island Iced Tea: who says waiting for inspiration to strike is hard work?). Though seemingly direct, her poems frequently operate on more than one level. The book’s final section is a gardener’s journal of observations about plants, insects and weather. But the garden also serves as a metaphor for life itself (as it has for many poets through the ages), with its cycle of growth and decay, and the utter unpredictability of what will thrive and what won’t.

Elsewhere, she describes the quality of light that makes “the half-full glass of autumn brim over//with glory. Not an upper case, grandiose kind of Glory/but a halo tossed like a Frisbee, accidental and luminous.” Glickman’s own poetry is rooted in the quotidian, not the grandiose. But it’s quietly affecting and often luminous.

Pages

  • A Note on Teaching Poetry
  • Angels, Not Polarities
  • Background
  • Dictionnaire des idées reçues
  • Extract from The Violin Lover
  • Found Money
  • Klibansky Award Speech
  • Maiden or Crone
  • My Art
  • My Life with Northrop Frye
  • News
  • Obituary for Zitner
  • On Finding a Copy of Pigeon in the Hospital Bookstore
  • On the Line
  • Other Writing
  • Poem about your laugh
  • Punish your book
  • Sample Page
  • Second Person Impersonal
  • Stuff about me floating around the web
  • Summertime
  • The Better Mother
  • The Tale-Teller Now Available in French!
  • The Violin in History
  • EDITING
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Nonfiction
  • Children’s Books
  • Editing
  • Bio
  • Cartoons
  • Contact

Categories

  • Books
  • Reviews
  • The Blog
  • Uncategorized

Archive

  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • May 2021
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • July 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Categories

  • Books
  • Reviews
  • The Blog
  • Uncategorized

Recent Comments

  • Susan Glickman on Beautiful setting of one of my extinction sonnets by Ronald Beckett, performed by the Arcady Ensemble
  • Susan Glickman on Beautiful cover by David Drummond for my new book of poetry, due out April 2019.
  • Eva Bednar on Beautiful cover by David Drummond for my new book of poetry, due out April 2019.
  • Jenny Koster on Beautiful setting of one of my extinction sonnets by Ronald Beckett, performed by the Arcady Ensemble

Recent Posts

  • Another piece dug out of my archives
  • Organizing my archives I am finding a lot of interesting old stuff. I quite like this piece about The Violin Lover, my first novel.

Archives

  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • May 2021
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • July 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
© Copyright - Susan Glickman - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi.at
  • scroll to top
  • Send us Mail
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed