Brian Brett, The Colour of Bones in a Stream
"I write for forever, but I operate on the assumption that when I'm dead, it will all be dead. We're not smart enough to know what time will make of us. And time is the great editor, right?"--Brian Brett, quoted in the CBC story on his 2024 death , aged 73 Many's the time I've said so around here, and deeply do I feel it: reading contemporary poetry is work for me. I've mostly made my peace with that, but not always, because it makes me distrust my own reading practices. At bottom, I end up worrying whether I'm not getting it, getting it but not appreciating it, getting it but not liking it, or even liking it but not getting it. Anyway: I really, really liked some of the poems in Brian Brett's 1998 collection The Colour of Bones in a Stream . For me, that's all I ever want from a book of poems, because I fully expect that the writer will be experimenting, reaching beyond their grasp, trying on different forms and modes and voices. If I'm h...
