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Poetry Canadian

Lonely in a Cool, Sweet Way

by (author) Maureen McCarthy

Publisher
Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Initial publish date
Jan 1994
Category
Canadian, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781550171150
    Publish Date
    Jan 1994
    List Price
    $12.95

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Description

Lonely in a Cool, Sweet Way is the latest collection of poems by a writer whom Al Purdy has compared to Emily Dickinson and Margaret Avison. "I have the sense of seeing things with her eyes and mind," Purdy said in his introduction to her first book, She Reminds Me of Vermeer, "of actually being in her situation, and it's this intimacy that gives her poems power."

These are poems of waiting, of aging, prosaic poems where an overwhelming sense of menace bursts in upon everyday life, such as in McCarthy's description of a ride with a moody transit driver:

Puddles leapt, trees jumped over hedges,
were we bound for glory on the Kingsway line?
None asked, the Budget Mart spun by,
pumpkins like misshapen moons piled around its door.
("Muggy Afternoons")

Humorous and insightful, the poetry of Lonely in a Cool, Sweet Way is guaranteed to move and delight the reader.

About the author

Maureen McCarthy is a writer, mother and nurse who lives in New Westminster. She is the author of She Reminds Me of Vermeer, Girls in the Last Seat Waving and Lonely in a Cool, Sweet Way.

Maureen McCarthy's profile page