A Broken Bowl

By (author): Patrick Friesen

Set firmly at the end of the millennium, A Broken Bowl takes on the burden of history, with its heaped atrocities, its unimaginable sufferings. This long poem is an angry lament, a summoning of fragments, a meditation in the midst of an exhausted world. By turns lyric, satiric, elegiac and incantatory, A Broken Bowl is filled with passionate elemental writing in the tradition of Howl and Crow.

“Picture-building poetry doesn’t get better than this. Patrick Friesen communicates directly to your imagination. These fragments of a broken bowl are, indeed, much greater than the sum of their parts as they spur imaginal encounters not only with Friesen but with the scattered bits of the reader’s self – each piece a new gesture to try on.” — Per Brask.

“These are the end days – someone’s got a kitchen knife and is ‘looking for the government’ the river is a ‘filthy transfusion.’ Patrick Friesen sings this dark song with beauty and a guttering love. We’re long past apology, reconstruction: there’s only Friesen’s voice not nearly enough, sure, but the only thing worthy of trust.” — Tim Lilburn.

NOMINATED for the 1997 Governor General’s Award for Poetry.

AUTHOR

Patrick Friesen

Patrick Friesen writes poetry, essays, drama, scripts, songs, and text for dance and music. The author of over a dozen books of poetry, Friesen has collaborated with various musicians, including Big Dave McLean, Cate Friesen, and Marilyn Lerner, and with choreographer-dancers Margie Gillis, Stephanie Ballard, and Ruth Cansfield. Friesen also teaches, part-time, as a sessional in the Writing Department at the University of Victoria. His most recent poetry book is ‘jumping in the asylum'(Quattro Books, 2011). Formerly of Winnipeg, Friesen now lives in Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island.

Reviews

” … A powerful lamentation and perhaps also a necessary catharsis.” Ñ Glen Downie, Event


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Excerpts & Samples ×

Set firmly at the end of the millennium, A Broken Bowl takes on the burden of history, with its heaped atrocities, its unimaginable sufferings. This long poem is an angry lament, a summoning of fragments, a meditation in the midst of an exhausted world. By turns lyric, satiric, elegiac and incantatory, A Broken Bowl is filled with passionate elemental writing in the tradition of Howl and Crow.

“Picture-building poetry doesn’t get better than this. Patrick Friesen communicates directly to your imagination. These fragments of a broken bowl are, indeed, much greater than the sum of their parts as they spur imaginal encounters not only with Friesen but with the scattered bits of the reader’s self – each piece a new gesture to try on.” — Per Brask.

“These are the end days – someone’s got a kitchen knife and is ‘looking for the government’ the river is a ‘filthy transfusion.’ Patrick Friesen sings this dark song with beauty and a guttering love. We’re long past apology, reconstruction: there’s only Friesen’s voice not nearly enough, sure, but the only thing worthy of trust.” — Tim Lilburn.

NOMINATED for the 1997 Governor General’s Award for Poetry.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

134 Pages
8.75in * 5.5in * 0.3125in
0.555lb

Published:

October 16, 1997

Country of Publication:

CA

Publisher:

Brick Books

ISBN:

9780919626935

Book Subjects:

POETRY / Canadian

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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