Inter Alia is the long-awaited first collection by one of Canada’s most talented young poets. His work has been widely published in journals and was selected by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane for Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. He is heir to the English metaphysical poets in many of his preoccupations, with a good dash of Robert Bly, but his technique is very much influenced by his interests in Oriental forms — haiku, waka, haibun, etc. Seymour is smart, yes; but this is above all poetry of deep feeling. Its publication marks the appearance of a unique and important new voice in Canadian poetry.

The Plain Fact of the Matter

Holding the cup in your hands, white. Watching it find a way to your lips;
the time it takes a cigarette to reach my mouth. You look as though you
are about to expose yourself, give up some secret. Or not. Your finger
circles the rim which catches your gaze; the one thing this moment
you want to understand without words. Ever have. Right before I
speak, you cock your head, bring your ear in close for this new,
less cruel language — in the cup, the shy turn of your neck.

Smoke is exhaled, broomswept dust in a sunlit room.