Rain; road; an open boat

Book excerpt: The first new collection of poetry from Roo Borson since her highly acclaimed collection Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, winner of three major prizes, including the Griffin Poetry Prize. Roo Borson's new collection continues the exploration of form, tone, musicality, and content begun in her widely acclaimed previous collection. Here, co-existing peacefully, are the river stone, painted white, that greets the visitor to the grave of the poet James K. Baxter in the far back country of New Zealand's Wanganui River; the Beijing night sky, turned apricot by the smog and full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival; the crypts of Toronto's Mount Pleasant Cemetery, seen as potential living spaces; an old friend speaking "knowledgeably, reverentially, and at the same time light-heartedly, in this way gradually restoring significance to the world." By turns wry and ecstatic, droll and elegiac, quizzical and contemplative, this is a major new work by one of our most singular and compelling poets.