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Poetry Canadian

The Age of Briggs & Stratton

by (author) Peter Culley

Publisher
New Star Books
Initial publish date
Apr 2008
Category
Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781554200399
    Publish Date
    Apr 2008
    List Price
    $18.00

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Description

The world's largest manufacturer of the two-stroke engine may seem like an unusual jumping-off point for poetry. But Peter Culley's second book about his hometown Nanaimo stems from his realization that there is not an hour of his waking existence when he cannot somewhere hear a leaf blower, a lawn mower or another piece of Briggs & Stratton-powered machinery. This book was written in a little over a year — a year which saw droughts in Tofino, floods on the Gulf Coast & Canadian boots on the ground in the never-ending "war on terror." Meanwhile, Hammertown — Culley's half-imagined version of the place where he lives — is being ripped apart by corporate boondoggles, accelerating development and the triumph of the service economy. In Culley's bitterly lyrical poems elements of this disappearing world appear as bad jokes, snatches of song and passages of reminiscence. Old records and half-remembered films are arrayed against impending collapse. Like small and noisy engines themselves, Culley's poems address the impossible contradictions of our unnamed era.

About the author

Peter Culley is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Hammertown (2003) and The Age of Briggs & Stratton (2008). He has also written extensively on visual art in various books and magazines for the past two decades. He lives in Nanaimo, BC.

Peter Culley's profile page