\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia

BOOKS IN REVIEWNichol's A Walk Out of the World andMarrow of the World.A quick reaction to the covers of thesethree books from Groundwood becomesa summary : one is fun, one is a bore, andone is gentle fantasy. Just a glance, butthat should cover the works.JUDITH WALKERLIMITS OF FEELINGMICHAEL BULLOCK, Prisoner of the Rain.Third Eye, $10.00.GERRY SHiKATANi, A Sparrow's Food. CoachHouse, n.p.MARLENE COOKSHAW, Personal Luggage.Coach House, n.p.EVA TiHANYi, Prophecies: Near the Speed ofLight. Thistledown, $8.95.JOHN LENT, Frieze. Thistledown, $8.95.THESE FIVE BOOKS, two of them firstfull-length collections, force some considerationof poetic technique, of theaccessibility of poetry to the interestedintelligent reader, and of the obviousrelationship between the two. In four ofthese books, the transmission of seriousfeeling seems to lie largely outside thepossibilities of the techniques, and it isfar from clear what emotional note isbeing hit, what our response should be.Michael Bullock offers us ninety-eightsurrealist prose-poems. Obviously surrealismis still alive, at least in Vancouver,and Bullock's track record in thismost difficult genre is, of course, impressive.However, there are problems withthis book, and for this author it must bejudged disappointing. The best surrealismtakes us into the subconscious in sucha way as to help us emerge from astrange journey seeing things freshly.This does not happen here; there is littleor no shock to the comfortable logic ofour lives. The images are certainlydreamlike, but soft-centred, gauzy, pallid,even fey, and their impact is minimal.The prose-poems often seem flabby —justifying the right margin does not, initself, make a good prose-poem, and thesame effects could be had by using continuousprose or free-verse. There seemsno necessity for the form and not enoughappreciation of its difficulties. In particular,there is far too much syntacticalrepetition (especially in the first lines),and I doubt if many readers will responddeeply to lines likeUnder the covered gaze of hawks the starfilledsky opens to reveal its empty womb.Waving trees beset it on either side andmushrom clouds of fish swim through itsinner waters. Houses rise on a foundationof clouds and drift towards the approachingwind.It all seems so dated, so familiar, so unchallenging.However, I must mentionsome Monty Python lines (if only therewere more like them) which delight thereader, stunned and weary by the sheerweight of often tedious writing: "At thebottom of a well a redheaded toad iswandering / around holding a balloon ona string." And why not? Bullock's admirerswill no doubt find this book essential.Others will want more than imaginarytoads in imaginary gardens and will probablybe waiting for a giant cartoon footto descend, popping the balloons.Gerry Shikatani's is a big collection(143 pages) and is finely illustrated byRosalind Goss. In fact, poem and drawingmerge often in interesting ways.Shikatani claims that his work is "actionin service to compassion," that he is exploring"such things as speed acceleration,shape, density, line, angle." Poetryis a tenuous thread in "ecological being."Luckily, this sort of bombast is not alwaysnoticeable in the poetry itself, the bestof which is supple, spare, and suggestive :where silence is bittenoff bitby bit / hereand there188