POETRY
COSMIC EGG
The Alfred Gustav Poetry Series, June 2021. Ed. David Zieroth. North Vancouver, B.C.
(Chapbook)
EFFORTFUL / effortless: after Cézanne
The Alfred Gustav Poetry Series, June 2021. Ed. David Zieroth. North Vancouver, B.C.
(Chapbook)
The Alfred Gustav Poetry Series, June 2021. Ed. David Zieroth. North Vancouver, B.C.
(Chapbook)
EFFORTFUL / effortless: after Cézanne
The Alfred Gustav Poetry Series, June 2021. Ed. David Zieroth. North Vancouver, B.C.
(Chapbook)
HEART WORK
Ekstasis Editions, 2020
http://www.ekstasiseditions.com
ISBN: 978-1-77171-402-0
Heart Work explores the regions of “the educated heart” where heart and mind, feeling and thinking conjoin. Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, and John Keats whirl together in liminal and earthy places where beliefs and concepts open to unknowing and mystery. Her breathtaking union of minimalist, Zen-like poems paired with her husband’s powerful photos in “Cariboo Fires, 2017,” and her sequence on living during the pandemic, “Corona Corona,” offer hope by tying the cosmic to the particular and the everyday.
Blurbs:
This luminous book is a poetic mandala, a circle of compassion that embraces the planet, and illuminates the particulars of sparrow, snail and spider. Susan McCaslin follows the poet’s vocation to “dream, receive, and chant the broken world.” The poems speak most movingly to our times, addressing coronavirus, and lamenting a beloved forest region devastated by wildfire. These are poems that soar with the kite bird “disappearing into the wind,” but dwell also with the lowly, the “monkish cow” who “sentinels a spindly grove.” They bring comfort in the original sense of the word: that which gives strength.
Hildegard of Bingen, Keats, and Julian of Norwich enter Susan McCaslin’s reflections to enrich our sense of these times and their meaning. McCaslin has evidently lived with the mystics’ writings for a long time and they appear here, not as though they are of the past, but as though they are presences who have been with us all along. One feels that each of the three visionaries would have treasured this exquisite book, would have welcomed McCaslin into their companionship, and joined with the reader in heartfelt grief and praise as the poet honours our planet in all its beauty, tragedy and hope.
— Barbara Colebrook Peace
Susan McCaslin calls us away from postmodern vacuity, calls us away to behold again the ancient and the timeless, even in the new.This book is a lovely wander, with stops to visit with a wise old woman and an ecstatic young man, on a road that leads through a wildfire-ravaged landscape to find flashes of persistent life and joy even in the depths of our various global maladies. The poems in Heart Work connect us, through an experienced poet’s skill, to other times and other lives. Each small window into the past and the poetic helps us see more deeply that which is universal, and, as Keats says, “take part in its existence.”
— Diane Tucker
Each reader will take away her own treasure from Heart Work. For me, the Keatsian exploration of letter-snippet and meditative-response is particularly thrilling. McCaslin in this suite of poems grounds Beauty and Truth in the spider “flirting her silk/by the window” and the Northern Flicker “slow-timing time…with its red cap and/spotted vest.” Nothing is abstract in these poems; everything flickers, and glows in luminous details and particularities.
— J.S. Porter
Ekstasis Editions, 2020
http://www.ekstasiseditions.com
ISBN: 978-1-77171-402-0
Heart Work explores the regions of “the educated heart” where heart and mind, feeling and thinking conjoin. Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, and John Keats whirl together in liminal and earthy places where beliefs and concepts open to unknowing and mystery. Her breathtaking union of minimalist, Zen-like poems paired with her husband’s powerful photos in “Cariboo Fires, 2017,” and her sequence on living during the pandemic, “Corona Corona,” offer hope by tying the cosmic to the particular and the everyday.
Blurbs:
This luminous book is a poetic mandala, a circle of compassion that embraces the planet, and illuminates the particulars of sparrow, snail and spider. Susan McCaslin follows the poet’s vocation to “dream, receive, and chant the broken world.” The poems speak most movingly to our times, addressing coronavirus, and lamenting a beloved forest region devastated by wildfire. These are poems that soar with the kite bird “disappearing into the wind,” but dwell also with the lowly, the “monkish cow” who “sentinels a spindly grove.” They bring comfort in the original sense of the word: that which gives strength.
Hildegard of Bingen, Keats, and Julian of Norwich enter Susan McCaslin’s reflections to enrich our sense of these times and their meaning. McCaslin has evidently lived with the mystics’ writings for a long time and they appear here, not as though they are of the past, but as though they are presences who have been with us all along. One feels that each of the three visionaries would have treasured this exquisite book, would have welcomed McCaslin into their companionship, and joined with the reader in heartfelt grief and praise as the poet honours our planet in all its beauty, tragedy and hope.
— Barbara Colebrook Peace
Susan McCaslin calls us away from postmodern vacuity, calls us away to behold again the ancient and the timeless, even in the new.This book is a lovely wander, with stops to visit with a wise old woman and an ecstatic young man, on a road that leads through a wildfire-ravaged landscape to find flashes of persistent life and joy even in the depths of our various global maladies. The poems in Heart Work connect us, through an experienced poet’s skill, to other times and other lives. Each small window into the past and the poetic helps us see more deeply that which is universal, and, as Keats says, “take part in its existence.”
— Diane Tucker
Each reader will take away her own treasure from Heart Work. For me, the Keatsian exploration of letter-snippet and meditative-response is particularly thrilling. McCaslin in this suite of poems grounds Beauty and Truth in the spider “flirting her silk/by the window” and the Northern Flicker “slow-timing time…with its red cap and/spotted vest.” Nothing is abstract in these poems; everything flickers, and glows in luminous details and particularities.
— J.S. Porter
INTO THE OPEN: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS
Inanna Publications, 2017
https://www.inanna.ca/catalog/open-new-and-selected/
ISBN: 978-1-77133-465-5
Into the Open: Poems New and Selected is both a compendium and compression of the best and most representative of Susan McCaslin's poetry over nearly five decades. In addition, it showcases new work. The explorations of Into the Open begin with McCaslin's intense early interest in mystical Christianity, but expand to include global wisdom traditions from cultures east and west. Her work does not advocate for a particular system of belief, but exemplifies the open-ended probings of an inquiring mind. A selection of her new work in a powerful sequence called Lineage takes up some of her earlier themes but pushes them into new arenas, addressing questions of how to age into elder-dom; how to take one's place with humility and gratitude in a world fraught with pain and loss; how to remain open to wonder. In the words of her editor Katerina Fretwell, "Selecting from Susan McCaslin's eighteen-book oeuvre Into the Open has been a pilgrimage through her poetic and spiritual evolution. Her visionary poetscapes conjure William Blake, Thomas Merton, Greco-Roman mythology, angels, the Canadian mystic Olga Park, John of Patmos, Teresa of Avila, Henry Vaughan, Lao Tzu, Han Shan, Mary Magdalene and other unitive mystics of many cultures, faiths and eras. Such diversity suggests the range and reach of McCaslin's work. Here is a poet at the peak of her powers."
Blurbs:
"Susan McCaslin’s Into the Open is an outstanding achievement comprising over forty years’ worth of work. It is nothing short of astonishing in its breadth and depth, its sheer sophistication of form, language and theme. The book brings together poems from McCaslin’s thirteen previous collections plus a selection from five early chapbooks and thirty new poems. The development of her artistry is a pleasure to behold, her voice confident, compassionate and clear, and always lit with the energy caught in the last two lines of this incredible book: “Nothing divine charges a fee/Everything is charged with love.” If you read only one book of poetry this year, read this one.”
— Eva Tihanyi, author of The Largeness of Rescue and Flying Underwater: Poems New and Selected
Into The Open, Susan McCaslin’s long awaited New and Selected Poems is a marvelous compendium of her singular poetic and spiritual journey spanning four decades of poetry-making and eighteen books. A visionary and mystic, a rarity in today’s world, McCaslin blazes a luminous path ranging from the Divine Feminine and Ars Poetica to such pressing imperatives as stewardship of the earth and social justice in a troubled world. I know of few poets who have forayed with such power and grace (not to mention courage) into the blinding mysteries of the human heart. Her collection radiates wonder, gratitude & loving-kindness—a feast for mind and spirit to be pondered and treasured.”
— James Clarke, author of seventeen volumes of poetry including The Juried Heart
“Into the Open reveals poems charged with grounded aperçus, lightning landed, and vision realized in “kin-ship” along the poet’s uncommon daily round. Here’s a vibrancy in and beyond the senses, pulsating across decades: an essential, timeless and timely book. Read Susan McCaslin’s eloquent articulation of a mystical, creative life and be changed, be charged and inspired.”
— Penn Kemp, poet and playwright; author of Barbaric Cultural Practice
Inanna Publications, 2017
https://www.inanna.ca/catalog/open-new-and-selected/
ISBN: 978-1-77133-465-5
Into the Open: Poems New and Selected is both a compendium and compression of the best and most representative of Susan McCaslin's poetry over nearly five decades. In addition, it showcases new work. The explorations of Into the Open begin with McCaslin's intense early interest in mystical Christianity, but expand to include global wisdom traditions from cultures east and west. Her work does not advocate for a particular system of belief, but exemplifies the open-ended probings of an inquiring mind. A selection of her new work in a powerful sequence called Lineage takes up some of her earlier themes but pushes them into new arenas, addressing questions of how to age into elder-dom; how to take one's place with humility and gratitude in a world fraught with pain and loss; how to remain open to wonder. In the words of her editor Katerina Fretwell, "Selecting from Susan McCaslin's eighteen-book oeuvre Into the Open has been a pilgrimage through her poetic and spiritual evolution. Her visionary poetscapes conjure William Blake, Thomas Merton, Greco-Roman mythology, angels, the Canadian mystic Olga Park, John of Patmos, Teresa of Avila, Henry Vaughan, Lao Tzu, Han Shan, Mary Magdalene and other unitive mystics of many cultures, faiths and eras. Such diversity suggests the range and reach of McCaslin's work. Here is a poet at the peak of her powers."
Blurbs:
"Susan McCaslin’s Into the Open is an outstanding achievement comprising over forty years’ worth of work. It is nothing short of astonishing in its breadth and depth, its sheer sophistication of form, language and theme. The book brings together poems from McCaslin’s thirteen previous collections plus a selection from five early chapbooks and thirty new poems. The development of her artistry is a pleasure to behold, her voice confident, compassionate and clear, and always lit with the energy caught in the last two lines of this incredible book: “Nothing divine charges a fee/Everything is charged with love.” If you read only one book of poetry this year, read this one.”
— Eva Tihanyi, author of The Largeness of Rescue and Flying Underwater: Poems New and Selected
Into The Open, Susan McCaslin’s long awaited New and Selected Poems is a marvelous compendium of her singular poetic and spiritual journey spanning four decades of poetry-making and eighteen books. A visionary and mystic, a rarity in today’s world, McCaslin blazes a luminous path ranging from the Divine Feminine and Ars Poetica to such pressing imperatives as stewardship of the earth and social justice in a troubled world. I know of few poets who have forayed with such power and grace (not to mention courage) into the blinding mysteries of the human heart. Her collection radiates wonder, gratitude & loving-kindness—a feast for mind and spirit to be pondered and treasured.”
— James Clarke, author of seventeen volumes of poetry including The Juried Heart
“Into the Open reveals poems charged with grounded aperçus, lightning landed, and vision realized in “kin-ship” along the poet’s uncommon daily round. Here’s a vibrancy in and beyond the senses, pulsating across decades: an essential, timeless and timely book. Read Susan McCaslin’s eloquent articulation of a mystical, creative life and be changed, be charged and inspired.”
— Penn Kemp, poet and playwright; author of Barbaric Cultural Practice
PAINTER, POET, MOUNTAIN: AFTER CÉZANNE
Quattro Books, 2016
quattrobooks.ca/books/painter-poet-mountain-after-cezanne/
ISBN: 978-1-988254-23-4
Painter, Poet, Mountain: After Cézanne re-enacts a journey to Aix-en-Provence in 2013, where the poet found herself in a “heart-soul-mind-clench” with the post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne. Her book traces how the artist accompanied her home to the Fraser Valley outside Fort Langley, British Columbia, where she gazed through his eyes to see afresh the trees and landscapes near her home. Readers may be surprised to discover the impact of Cézanne’s achievement on later poets, philosophers, and writers, the enormity and enduring quality of his legacy. Read as a whole, this book suggests that Cézanne was an early deep ecologist.
Blurbs:
Moving easily between her life as a pilgrim in Aix-en-Provence and Cézanne’s as a native, between her life as a poet and his as a painter, Susan McCaslin writes into the experience she inventively calls “interbeing.” The result is a multilayered exfoliation of Cubism like waves reaching shores or shores meeting waves. — E.D. Blodgett, author of Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano
Like much ekphrastic work, these Cézanne poems serve as an ars poetica, an interrogation and a celebration of the artistic process. The poems’ lively engagement creates an immediacy that arises from and transcends layers of description, interpretation, and imagination. These contemplative, often playful poems are written to and from “the field / of the inner eye / (where things commune).” — Stephanie Bolster, author of A Page from the Wonders of Life on Earth
Susan McCaslin’s restless poetic lines straddle the page like thin rope ladders across a bottomless canyon of silence, regret, wonder and longing. Cezanne’s life and work becomes a rich metaphor of multidimensional possibilities in a fraught world: “The pines / a dizzying galaxy / along the road.” -- Di Brandt, author of Walking to Mojácar
Quattro Books, 2016
quattrobooks.ca/books/painter-poet-mountain-after-cezanne/
ISBN: 978-1-988254-23-4
Painter, Poet, Mountain: After Cézanne re-enacts a journey to Aix-en-Provence in 2013, where the poet found herself in a “heart-soul-mind-clench” with the post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne. Her book traces how the artist accompanied her home to the Fraser Valley outside Fort Langley, British Columbia, where she gazed through his eyes to see afresh the trees and landscapes near her home. Readers may be surprised to discover the impact of Cézanne’s achievement on later poets, philosophers, and writers, the enormity and enduring quality of his legacy. Read as a whole, this book suggests that Cézanne was an early deep ecologist.
Blurbs:
Moving easily between her life as a pilgrim in Aix-en-Provence and Cézanne’s as a native, between her life as a poet and his as a painter, Susan McCaslin writes into the experience she inventively calls “interbeing.” The result is a multilayered exfoliation of Cubism like waves reaching shores or shores meeting waves. — E.D. Blodgett, author of Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano
Like much ekphrastic work, these Cézanne poems serve as an ars poetica, an interrogation and a celebration of the artistic process. The poems’ lively engagement creates an immediacy that arises from and transcends layers of description, interpretation, and imagination. These contemplative, often playful poems are written to and from “the field / of the inner eye / (where things commune).” — Stephanie Bolster, author of A Page from the Wonders of Life on Earth
Susan McCaslin’s restless poetic lines straddle the page like thin rope ladders across a bottomless canyon of silence, regret, wonder and longing. Cezanne’s life and work becomes a rich metaphor of multidimensional possibilities in a fraught world: “The pines / a dizzying galaxy / along the road.” -- Di Brandt, author of Walking to Mojácar
