Author’s Foreword: Why short poems? Although compactness and density are important poetic virtues, I never set out to write poems of a certain length: a poem should be as long as it needs to be and not a syllable longer. But small things risk going unnoticed. Thus, although some of these poems have appeared in my previous twelve books, since most reviewers focus on the supposedly more ‘serious’ longer poems, they have received little attention. Moreover, because many Canadian poets still seem self-consciously caught up in creating the ‘great Canadian poem’, the national literary monument, those qualities of irony and wit, as distinct from broad humour and whimsy, that often characterize short poems tend not to be so highly prized. For the most part, Canadian poets – P.K. Page and Pat Lowther are two BC exceptions – are more likely to honour Whitman than Dickinson. Obviously short poems are best suited for epigrammatic insights into public life, the verbal equivalent of a good political cartoon, as also for thumbnail sketches of people, animals or cityscapes. Just as in painting, sometimes, an oil sketch or an apparently slight drawing will elicit an atmosphere, a charm and a sense of transience denied to the more solemn, fully finished masterpiece – think Rembrandt, Watteau, Goya, Daumier – so too, I hope, some of these snapshots will capture, in passing, aspects of everyday life that we otherwise might have forgotten to see.
The way I have divided up the book is arbitrary, basically by subject matter rather than by theme, but unlike a regular book of poetry where one eventually reads the whole work, these poems invite random dipping. If some of them give the reader momentary pause, I shall be satisfied.
– Christopher Levenson
Available for purchase at: Silver Bow Publishing, Amazon
Levenson shares attention enriched by wit, irony, warmth and linguistic invention. In ‘Poet as cook’ he writes ‘ I specialize in/nuances of heart and tongue’ and for these skills we should all be grateful. Small Talk offers a largesse of pleasures writ small. Kevin Spenst, author of “Hearts Amok”. These poems, like the hummingbirds one of them describes, are ‘mini-tornadoes’ of humour and insight. Levenson writes ‘Old age is contagious/ Stick around long enough/and you’ll be infected too’ and the same can be said of this book. These poems are addictive. Rob Taylor, author of “Stranger”. These poems remind us our world’s non-human presences – armadillo, cornflower, reflections, grass — are important ‘details that otherwise / I would have forgotten to see.’ Such details urge us to reassess our behaviour.
Cynthia Flood, author of “You Are Here”.
British Columbia Review, Al Rempel
Christopher Levenson’s latest book, Small Talk, is a collection of short poems that is poignant, insightful, or humorous, and filled with observations that resonate with lived experience. Levenson has decided to showcase his small poems — selected from his twelve previous books and various journals — and let them stand on their own. Often ignored or glossed over, short poems can have a unique impact, and can celebrate the petit moments of daily life. Levenson groups his collection into four categories but invites his readers to dip into his poems at random.
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