Haskins carries such tonal vacillations with a deliberate and practised voice, both in this poem and throughout the collection, his aptitude for literary craft offering an aesthetic equanimity that clearly marks these varied pieces as his own. Read Blood Rises if you want to be shown how fully a person can manifest their life in poetry after decades of discipline.

In Blood Rises, David Haskins presents himself as a mature writer willing to avoid the easy topics in favour of driving to the heart of things, be it the culture of the much-abused Haida of Canada’s West Coast or the violence in Guatemala, Columbia, and Mexico or the fact that our own government has been complicit in torture when dealing with suspected terrorists. This book also contains a searching section on the death of the poet’s wife that explores his inner world of grief, and closes with a bold ascent to the fields of the sun at Machu Picchu. Blood Rises is an impressive contribution to Canadian poetry.

Blood Rises is a collection that moves, enriches, and gives powerful meaning to life. David Haskins records scenes in vivid poetic detail, from the sublime experience of hiking at Machu Picchu to the ordinary chore of pruning a raspberry bush. He writes of the heroes and traditions of Canadian poetry with affection, nostalgia, and wicked wit. Above all, like our strongest poets, he writes against despair. In these poems, even the simplest activities—moving a file cabinet or painting a room—are imbued with deep emotion, and throughout, the beauty of the natural world graces the human soul with hope: “For one night/my tree/harbours your stars.”

This collection is undoubtedly one man’s powerful life feast.