Earthly Pages by Don Domanski

Earthly Pages
by Don Domanski
Selected by
Brian Bartlett
Laurier Poetry Series
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
(2007)

There's a giant literary brick wall dividing Canada and the US. You can't see it, but it's there, and it's carefully and methodically at work to keep the work of US poets from entering Canada and vice versa. This phenomenon can't be blamed on advertising or distribution (though those undoubtedly factor into the situation), nor can it be blamed on laziness or apathy (thousands of individual volumes are printed in both countries each year and, for good or ill, hundreds of writing programs are in full swing on either side of our borders). The dissemination of poetry, perhaps more so than any other art form, is a word-of-mouth affair. Poetry is largely published by impoverished individuals, not-for-profit organizations, and budget-weary universities. Poets, book dealers, bibliophiles, and common readers don't (and can't) rely upon the New York Times for a poetry book suggestion, we can only rely upon one another to learn about "new" authors, and we keep the art alive by doing so.

In that spirit, we offer Earthly Pages, a slim selection of Canadian poet Don Domanski's work from 7 books spanning 22 years. The Laurier Poetry Series offers 12 titles, each of which is a selection of a major Canadian poet's work edited and introduced by a literary critic. Though brief, these paperback originals showcase enough work to be quite substantive. Earthly Pages is an excellent read cover to cover, and it showcases Domanski's obsessions with nature, development as a meditative poet, and stylistic range. Domanski's work is impossible to characterize or stuff into a neat category. Some have given in to the temptation to call him a "nature poet" or an "eco poet," but these confines simply won't do. To be called a nature poet implies a certain amount of tunnel-vision on the part of the author, with the scale being tipped toward the romanticizing of the wilderness and away from the impacts of modernization and industrialization upon the landscape. To be called an eco poet implies that the author is bound to the political and the partisan, and thus confined to shy away from the spiritual or Romantic connection between humankind and the organic. For Domanski, nature (and Nature) is the convergence between the outer life and the imagination, the happening where we are forced to confront the spiritual and philosophical, the violent and the calm, the bleakly finite and the mystically infinite. Help us get the work of this strikingly original Canadian poet onto US bookshelves. All LPS titles are in print and should be ordered from your local independent bookseller.



FATA MORGANA


you're walking alone in the forest
the moon is directly overhead
eating her supper of astronomy
and wedding-gifts

there's a thousand miles of trees
in every direction
which means there's just
enough blood to go around
so you mustn't spill a drop

of course every second tree
is the Tree of Death
every third one
the Tree of Life
while all the others
are doors to atonement
but you mustn't knock

you're like me
and want a straight line
through everything
but there aren't any here
no path from A to B
no A or B

you're not lost
this is the earth
you're not human
but a fox or a rabbit

your life behind a desk
was an illusion
the shining city a madness
brought on by fatigue

there aren't any cars or telephones
there never were
not a single clothesline or shoelace
in all the world

your heartbeats are so many
peapods being cracked open
between a finger and a thumb
your footprints swallow themselves
as you walk along

what I said about the moon was a lie
there were never any weddings
or any gifts
not an astronomer to be found

the moon is devouring you
just you tonight
with your long ears pricked up
in their sad salute to fear

this hour is called Abandonment
this night Bottomless
I would call you Insignificant
if you weren't already named Essential
if you weren't the very centre of the world.



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