Overview

Canadian literary legend George Bowering lays bare his process as reader and lover of poetry in this curated collection of poems to be read in the morning. In a series of deeply astute and conversational essays, two-time Governor General's Award winner and inaugural Parlimentary Poet Laureate of Canada George Bowering travels through five hundred years, give or take, of English-language literature, adding historical, political, feminist, socio-economic, anecdotal, and literary context to each poem and poet. His selection of poems ranges from the best known to the barely known, each piece treated with depth and reverence, while demonstrating his razor-sharp wit and skill as writer, critic, and reader. Recalling the work of George Saunders and Sina Queyras, in their interactions with established literature, George's insight in the poetic mind is invaluable, making this is must-read collection for anyone interested in reading or writing poetry.

Full Product Details

9781774390658

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for Good Morning Poems ""Bowering the reader of poems returns us to a place of wonder and mystery--with no irritable reaching after fact and reason--as though every poem is the first poem ever read--a cypher, a delight, a breathing of new life into the world. More than a mere anthology of favourite poems, or a retired professors final words on the greats, Bowering here gives us a slice of daily life where the living has been in through and with poems that have been intimate and steadfast companions for decades. The attention is exquisite."" --Stephen Collis, author of A History of the Theory of Rain ""What a great way to start the day. Good morning, poetry. Bowering torques Gertrude Stein's note on ""History teaches"" to ""Let me recite what poetry teaches. Poetry teaches"". The familiarity of the poems themselves is a treat but to revisit them alongside an intelligent poetic and critical skill is like getting a croissant with your coffee. As he has lived in writing for most of his life, Bowering inhabits the English poetic canon with great care and attention. Thankfully his pleasure of the poem embellishes our own so that the music of words sets the day ahead full of imagination."" --Fred Wah, award-winning author of Music at the Heart of Thinking and Faking It: Poetics & Hybridity ""George Bowering's title Good Morning Poems, can be variously read - as a greeting to historic poems, as poems from centuries-ago mornings that are ""good,"" and as poems that welcome you to today. These seem to be poems which have been welcoming Bowering for quite a while, from ""Back in the mists of time when I was a university English student."" Yet overall his selections and one-page commentaries approach current expectations for race and gender diversity - one of numerous surprises he can find for us in these still welcoming lyrics."" --Frank Davey, award-winning author of Poems Suitable to Current Material Conditions, and aka bpNichol: a preliminary biography ""I am not a morning person. I am, though, a George Bowering person -- and this neat little book gives readers access not only to Bowering the writer, but to George the mentor, teacher, and language-drunk friend, dizzy with all the possibilities of words, phrases, sentences, images, allusions, metaphors, assonances, and rhymes. Here he is in all of his infectious enthusiasm for some of the finest poetry ever written in English. I can't imagine a better guide."" --Charles Demers, author of Property Values

Praise for Good Morning Poems Bowering the reader of poems returns us to a place of wonder and mystery--with no irritable reaching after fact and reason--as though every poem is the first poem ever read--a cypher, a delight, a breathing of new life into the world. More than a mere anthology of favourite poems, or a retired professors final words on the greats, Bowering here gives us a slice of daily life where the living has been in through and with poems that have been intimate and steadfast companions for decades. The attention is exquisite. --Stephen Collis, author of A History of the Theory of Rain What a great way to start the day. Good morning, poetry. Bowering torques Gertrude Stein's note on History teaches to Let me recite what poetry teaches. Poetry teaches . The familiarity of the poems themselves is a treat but to revisit them alongside an intelligent poetic and critical skill is like getting a croissant with your coffee. As he has lived in writing for most of his life, Bowering inhabits the English poetic canon with great care and attention. Thankfully his pleasure of the poem embellishes our own so that the music of words sets the day ahead full of imagination. --Fred Wah, award-winning author of Music at the Heart of Thinking and Faking It: Poetics & Hybridity George Bowering's title Good Morning Poems, can be variously read - as a greeting to historic poems, as poems from centuries-ago mornings that are good, and as poems that welcome you to today. These seem to be poems which have been welcoming Bowering for quite a while, from Back in the mists of time when I was a university English student. Yet overall his selections and one-page commentaries approach current expectations for race and gender diversity - one of numerous surprises he can find for us in these still welcoming lyrics. --Frank Davey, award-winning author of Poems Suitable to Current Material Conditions, and aka bpNichol: a preliminary biography I am not a morning person. I am, though, a George Bowering person -- and this neat little book gives readers access not only to Bowering the writer, but to George the mentor, teacher, and language-drunk friend, dizzy with all the possibilities of words, phrases, sentences, images, allusions, metaphors, assonances, and rhymes. Here he is in all of his infectious enthusiasm for some of the finest poetry ever written in English. I can't imagine a better guide. --Charles Demers, author of Property Values

Praise for Good Morning Poems Bowering the reader of poems returns us to a place of wonder and mystery--with no irritable reaching after fact and reason--as though every poem is the first poem ever read--a cypher, a delight, a breathing of new life into the world. More than a mere anthology of favourite poems, or a retired professors final words on the greats, Bowering here gives us a slice of daily life where the living has been in through and with poems that have been intimate and steadfast companions for decades. The attention is exquisite. --Stephen Collis, author of A History of the Theory of Rain What a great way to start the day. Good morning, poetry. Bowering torques Gertrude Stein's note on History teaches to Let me recite what poetry teaches. Poetry teaches. The familiarity of the poems themselves is a treat but to revisit them alongside an intelligent poetic and critical skill is like getting a croissant with your coffee. As he has lived in writing for most of his life, Bowering inhabits the English poetic canon with great care and attention. Thankfully his pleasure of the poem embellishes our own so that the music of words sets the day ahead full of imagination. --Fred Wah, award-winning author of Music at the Heart of Thinking and Faking It: Poetics & Hybridity George Bowering's title Good Morning Poems, can be variously read - as a greeting to historic poems, as poems from centuries-ago mornings that are good, and as poems that welcome you to today. These seem to be poems which have been welcoming Bowering for quite a while, from Back in the mists of time when I was a university English student. Yet overall his selections and one-page commentaries approach current expectations for race and gender diversity - one of numerous surprises he can find for us in these still welcoming lyrics. --Frank Davey, award-winning author of Poems Suitable to Current Material Conditions, and aka bpNichol: a preliminary biography

"Praise for Good Morning Poems ""Bowering the reader of poems returns us to a place of wonder and mystery-with no irritable reaching after fact and reason-as though every poem is the first poem ever read-a cypher, a delight, a breathing of new life into the world. More than a mere anthology of favourite poems, or a retired professors final words on the greats, Bowering here gives us a slice of daily life where the living has been in through and with poems that have been intimate and steadfast companions for decades. The attention is exquisite."" -Stephen Collis, author of A History of the Theory of Rain ""What a great way to start the day. Good morning, poetry. Bowering torques Gertrude Stein's note on ""History teaches"" to ""Let me recite what poetry teaches. Poetry teaches"". The familiarity of the poems themselves is a treat but to revisit them alongside an intelligent poetic and critical skill is like getting a croissant with your coffee. As he has lived in writing for most of his life, Bowering inhabits the English poetic canon with great care and attention. Thankfully his pleasure of the poem embellishes our own so that the music of words sets the day ahead full of imagination."" -Fred Wah, award-winning author of Music at the Heart of Thinking and Faking It: Poetics & Hybridity ""George Bowering's title Good Morning Poems, can be variously read - as a greeting to historic poems, as poems from centuries-ago mornings that are ""good,"" and as poems that welcome you to today. These seem to be poems which have been welcoming Bowering for quite a while, from ""Back in the mists of time when I was a university English student."" Yet overall his selections and one-page commentaries approach current expectations for race and gender diversity - one of numerous surprises he can find for us in these still welcoming lyrics."" -Frank Davey, award-winning author of Poems Suitable to Current Material Conditions, and aka bpNichol: a preliminary biography ""I am not a morning person. I am, though, a George Bowering person -- and this neat little book gives readers access not only to Bowering the writer, but to George the mentor, teacher, and language-drunk friend, dizzy with all the possibilities of words, phrases, sentences, images, allusions, metaphors, assonances, and rhymes. Here he is in all of his infectious enthusiasm for some of the finest poetry ever written in English. I can't imagine a better guide."" -Charles Demers, author of Property Values"

Author Information

George Bowering approaches literature as he does life: with a playful gravity and a grave merriness that makes intellectual life and writing seem at once attractive, unintimidating and remarkable. He dispels the myth of literature being hard or tricky, and demonstrates, as he reads and chats, the accessible and enriching nature of great literature. Two time Governor General's Award winner and Canada's first Poet Laureate, Bowering was born in the Okanagan Valley, attended the University of British Columbia and has taught literature at the University of Calgary, The University of Western Ontario, Simon Fraser University, and Concordia University, Montréal. He and his wife Jean live in Vancouver.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available