Description:
`When does a thought become part of a poem and when does it become part of some other form of writing? ... You jot something down and watch to see how it leans.'
In Viaticum, Jeffery Donaldson presents selections from his notebooks that represent, as Wallace Stevens might say, `a readiness for first bells'. These proto-arguments and poetic seedlings-musings on the process of thought, the power of language, the passage of time and the promise of the afterlife-wait to see if `not yet' might be `already something'. They offer glimpses inside the mind of a thoughtful poet, and provide readers with a spiritual conductor whose orchestral rehearsal culminates in no actual performance-`only the sense that we are ready now'.
Brief description:
Jeffery Donaldson is the author of five previous collections of poetry, most recently Slack Action (Porcupine's Quill, 2011), which was shortlisted for the Hamilton Arts Council Literary Award for Poetry. Palilalia (McGill-Queen's, 2008) was a finalist for the Canadian Author's Association Award for Poetry. Donaldson has also written works of criticism on poetry and metaphor. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario, where he teaches poetry and American literature at McMaster University.