Bureau of Useless Splendour, both the poem and the book, are written very much in a poetic voice of low-key surrealism, but they also juxtapose emotional sincerity with a sort of ironic distancing that I find really interesting. It’s like I want to communicate something deeply authentic by talking about the vagaries of life, but also the wonder and joy I get from image-making. Images are the véhicule for emotion in my poems, and I hope they communicate not just how difficult life can be, at times, but also how full of splendour this ancient journey we are all on really is.
Chris Banks reads from Bureau of Useless Splendour.
* * *
Chris Banks is a Pushcart-nominated Canadian poet with eight collections of poems. He has won two national awards, and his poems have appeared across Canada and the United States. Banks runs The Woodlot, a Canadian poetry reviews and essays website. He lives and writes in Kitchener, ON.
* * *
Bureau of Useless Splendour is available here on All Lit Up, or from your favourite indie bookstore.
