18 | Don McKay | Larix

Larix
Vallum Chapbook Series No. 18
Don McKay

Larix is masterful portrayal of the stirrings of the natural world. Away from bustling cityscapes, the beauty of nature is captured with precise and immediate sensitivity, which transposes the reader into the wood landscapes that are envisioned. Don McKay asks in “Lurch:” “Who can sing the mystery of what actually occurs?” Without question, he can, bringing us to a deeper communion with what it means to breathe with the living.

“We live between eroding raindrops
and accelerating clocks. The piano
lifts its lid to show its wire-and-hammer
heart.”

Author’s Bio

Don McKay has published numerous books of poetry and several books of essays. The poetry has been recognized with a number of awards, including two Governor General’s Awards and the Griffin Poetry Prize. His most recent book of essays, The Shell of the Tortoise, received the BMO Winterset Award for Excellence in Newfoundland and Labrador Writing for 2011. Paradoxides, his most recent book of poems, includes meditations on geology and deep time, while pursuing ongoing obsessions with birds and tools. His collected poems, Angular Unconformity, appeared in 2014. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

“…there’s an obvious and long­-developed elegance to these poems that no doubt mirrors the elegance he sees in the wild.” – Broken Pencil