The Kingdom of Ordinary Time: Poems

One of my favourite poets is back with a slim but memorable book that truly celebrates--a word that can be too readily used to describe poetry these days--the ordinary hours in which we are not trying to be God, or making "intricate plans" to rule our lives and the lives of others. Candid, unpretentious and devastatingly precise, Howe cleaves away the layers of the self to find something that...more

One of my favourite poets is back with a slim but memorable book that truly celebrates--a word that can be too readily used to describe poetry these days--the ordinary hours in which we are not trying to be God, or making "intricate plans" to rule our lives and the lives of others. Candid, unpretentious and devastatingly precise, Howe cleaves away the layers of the self to find something that hides inside us all, be it God, love, or a potential for transcendence, even when what she unearths dives in and out of her grasp. Her poem "Prayer" is one of my favourites for being so exact in its desire: "...The mystics say you are as close as my own breath. Why do I flee from you? My days and nights pour through me like complaints and become a story I forgot to tell. Help me. Even as I write these words I am planning to rise from the chair as soon as I finish this sentence."   hide