A big book at a very attractive price (how does Ronsdale do it?), Writing the Tides covers more than three decades of varied and accessible poetry for arm-chair travelers. While not stretching the boundaries of language, Kevin Roberts is always personal and never obscure. "Cobalt 3,"; a group of poems about his experience of cancer treatment, is highly recommended reading for everyone whose lives have been touched by cancer. "At first you're frantic / swim madly for shore / but you're too weak / in the tide rip's / all mindless muscle /you tread water."; Writing the Tides concludes with about fifty new poems: surfing and aging in B.C., Australia and Thailand. Roberts concludes, "And so we all surf, sit in rows / seek the perfect wave . . . to dance us down to some imagined shore."; 1-55380-036-2

[BCBW 2006]