Oceans of verse: Poetry inspired by the sea
Rare Books and Special Collections houses a number of poetry books inspired by our world's oceans, notably some beautiful small and fine-press limited editions featuring British Columbian and Canadian poets. These include books by artist Andrea Taylor, and by presses such as Blackstone Press, Red Tower Bookworks, and the Aliquando Press. Here is just a small selection of the ocean-inspired poetry books at RBSC.
Coastlines : the poetry of Atlantic Canada by Call Number: PS8295.5.A85 C62 2002"Coastlines" provides expansive reading pleasure because of the astonishing range of poetic intelligences it represents and the myriad ways poets find to work and rework the topography of Atlantic culture and landscape.
Cries from the Ark by Call Number: PS8625.A237 C75 2017A pitch-perfect debut and a call to act in the service of Earth through radiant attention.
Ocean by Call Number: PS8563.O934 O34 2013The ocean has never had a biographer quite like Sue Goyette.
Perpetual by Call Number: PS8595.O5975 P47 2015Through drawings and graphic essays by artist Cindy Mochizuki and writer Rita Wong, the book visits some key sites where people have sabotaged themselves by desecrating water.
Planet Mostly Sea by Call Number: PR9336.A94 P53 1979The two long poems in "A Planet Mostly Sea" makes sense of the disorder of recent history.
Refugium by Call Number: PS8287.P33 R44 2017In this collection of poetry from the coast of B.C., California, Washington State, to Alaska and as far away as Auckland, New Zealand and as far back as early 19th century Japan, these poems explore our connection to the Pacific.
Spindrift by Call Number: PS8251 .S646 2017Journeying coast to coast to coast, from the picturesque and isolated Vancouver Island village of Ucluelet, through the desolate Northwest Passage, to historic Signal Hill at the tip of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, "Spindrift: A Canadian Book of the Sea" invites the reader on an evocative voyage.
Undercurrent by Call Number: PS8595.O5975 U52 2015Exploring a variety of poetic forms, anecdote, allusion and visual elements, this collection reminds humanity that we are water bodies, and we need and deserve better ways of honouring this.
