\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia

BOOKS IN REVIEWthe bottom of the page a terse poeticstatement which, although defying interpretationitself, does inspire interpretivereflection and even seems to assign theblank page above with the meanings ofthe poem it invites through its veryemptiness and seeming wastefulness. Asthe poet himself says: "great poems areread from the bottom up." The emphasisof these poems-at-bottom falls on theminim rather than on the mal of minimalism,as the book's concluding minimalmaxim (appropriately followed byseveral completely blank pages) suggestswith anti-intellectual wisdom: "neverread / never write / always continue tolearn." The greatest compliment one canpay to McCaffery is to encourage him tofollow his own advice by testing knowledge'signorance and by thinking aboutall that thought thought he did.Rather than aphoristic or epigrammatic,Louis Dudek's reflections aredidactic and prophetic. In some casesDudek simply gives wise advice, as whenhe suggests we compile an "encyclopediaof ignorance" or informs the young poetthat "It is humility to publish privately,at your own cost" ; whereas in other caseshe offers more profound speculation, aswhen he considers the perpetual possibilitiesof a chess game in relation to theendless free choices of human life orponders the probabilities of genealogyand concludes: "Everyone you meet is adistant family relation." Each entry is aself-contained idea on ideas, based onDudek's own poetic concerns and stimulatingour own concerns for poetry andfor the history of theoretical thought. Inhis belief that reality is more contemplativeeven than linguistic, Dudek seems toecho McCaffery's own contention thatthe silence of the blank page is perhapsthe highest poetic expression, representingas it does thought in its purity beforethe imperfection of oral or verbal expression.Both poets represent the purity of186ingested verse in that they pronouncetheir raw poetic ideas directly and yethave the refinement to keep silence,acknowledging silence as the criterion bywhich we judge the spoken essence ofpoetry. Even the critic must observetheir silence.These six collections of poetry andpoetic experimentation and theory pointto the fine distinctions between merepoetasting and the poetic of ingestedverse. If Steven Smith is rather tastelessand Frank Davey somewhat in bad taste,Roger Nash and St. John Simmons areeasily acquired tastes, and Steve McCafferyand Louis Dudek could very well beto everyone's taste. But each poet in hisown way enunciates the pre-eminentcritical distinction of tasting poets themselvesthrough the poetasting of ingestedcriticism. Buon appetito!COVERING KIDSP. MATTHEW ST. PIERREKEN ROBERTS, Crazy Ideas. Groundwood,$5-95-JACQUELINE NUGENT, Beyond the Door.Groundwood, $7.95.WILLIAM PASNAK, In the City of theGroundwood, $6.95.King.IF THESE THREE BOOKS from Douglasand Mclntyre's Groundwood Press wererepresentative of all new book publishing,the adage "you can't judge a bookby its cover" would soon be meaningless.The cover illustration on each of thesethree children's novels gives the readeran honest depiction of both the plot andthe flavour of the story within.Crazy Ideas is an easy, funny, predictable,and delightful tale for young readerswho want the open-mouthed, onedimensionalexcitement of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure with the bonus ofa real story. Like the story the cover is fullof activity and colour: two round-faced