Crooked at the Far End

by Gerald Hill

Overview

Crooked at the Far End, the latest book of poems in a series called The Man From Saskatchewan, travels, plays, and has a look around. Voices emanate from celebrities who inhabit cabins at Emma Lake, an old man sitting on a bench in Portugal, and the patrons of a fictional pub among others, all taking stock of the world we inhabit. A poet laureate details the incredible events that occurred during his tenure, "we saw industries of hope and growth/ and visitors from other lands sing/ in their own voices who they are/ We saw ourselves in a land alive." This collection is an homage to the natural and physical world and how "We still and always love the tender fits/ our language endures, lost souls asleep before the gate."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781989274415
Publisher:	Radiant Press
Publication date:	10/12/2020
Pages:	84
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Gerald Hill lives amid the leafy confines of downtown Regina. His forty-year teaching career took him across western Canada and to Papua New Guinea as a CUSO volunteer, finally to Luther College at the University of Regina, where Hill taught English and Creative Writing until 2018. Meanwhile, he maintained an active literary life as writer published in over 35 journals, literary festival presenter, event organizer, editor, leader, conference speaker, grant recipient, and mentor. Among the highlights: Instructor, Writing With Style, The Banff Centre, 2011; Writer-in-Residence, Convento São Francisco de Mértola, Portugal, February, 2010; Fellow, Hawthornden Retreat for Writers, Lasswade, Scotland, April, 2010; Resident, Leighton Studios, The Banff Centre, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013; Resident, Wallace Stegner House, Eastend, Sask., 2007, 2009; Poetry Editor, Grain, 2003-2008. A two-time winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry, Hill was Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan in 2016. Crooked at the Far End is his 7th poetry collection. Gerald Hill lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Table of Contents

Invocation 1

Eight Souls Who Shared 1927 to 1930 on This Planet, and the Odd Happy Hour in a Cabin at Emma Lake 3

Natural Cause: A Mountain Notebook 13

Pub Scrawls 23

Occasional Cities 33

Songs for Scarborough Bluffs 49

Writing Wrongs 59

When I Become Poet Laureate 72

Notes 83

Acknowledgements 84

Editorial Reviews

"Our man from Saskatchewan returns in these pages with a collection of poems that pass live signals across the lines. Reading Gerry Hill, we see how love sees us: as the polkadot in Marilyn's white dress, the laugh in Ella's song, the ascending staircase, the train, the ball, the empty chair. Crooked at the Far End will straighten your gaze. These poems, written with wit and intelligence, are saturated with love."
- Katherine Lawrence, author of Never Mind

"In Crooked at the Far End, Hill knocks about, with wry savvy, from the Rocky Mountains to Scarborough Bluffs to Sevilla, hosting phantom guests, fellow scribes, and his self - or persona - as observer. His grounding terrain is the field of poetics. This brisk and quirky outing, his sixth book in "The Man From Saskatchewan" serial long poem, might challenge a follower with its inventive, deft footwork. But like an excellent adventure it offers pleasurable surprise at every turn."
- Steven Ross Smith, Banff Poet Laureate

"When you're headed to the far end, where the way seems a bit crooked, you'll want a capable, trustworthy companion. And who better than Gerald Hill? The poems in Crooked at the Far End are the fabric of a journey enlivened by Hill's customary humour and deft handling of phrase. He has a knack for spinning detail that often surprises and always enlightens. And while each of the book's sections has its own particular tenor, they all work in harmony to "offer love, fear, joy, terror, the works, in many voices."
- Calvin Wharton, author of The Invention of Birds

From the Publisher