The Incorrection by George McWhirter (Oolichan $17.95)

"He likens the three Abrahamic religions to the Three Stooges.";

Among some literary poets there appears to be an unwritten rule that forbids poetry from being entertaining. Nobody told George McWhirter.

Storyteller, holy fool, genre-bender, McWhirter is the funniest/serious poet on the current New Titles list.

At 186 pages, divided into four sections, The Incorrection opens with Fluid Places, a series of "slender sonnets,"; each followed by a commentary. Slender is the right word. The average number of words per 14-line poem, total, is about forty; sonnets with all the fluff blown out. An unskilled poet taking unearned liberties? No, he's perfectly capable of the conventional sonnet form as he demonstrates in a later section.

These sonnets are overtly interlinked along with innumerable covert links. Belfast, Jericho Park, coffee, Mexico, pigs, tuna fishing, hats and swimming pools. That's just a taste of the rich cross-references in the first pages.

In Po-essays, the second section, McWhirter mines The New York Times, The Economist and National Geographic, among other publications and hauls out good ore. These poems are poignant social commentaries and indictments but the charmed hook is humour. He likens the three Abrahamic religions to the Three Stooges.

Speaking of religion, there are numerous mentions of God, (including fishing for God's bite on a lonely line). "Catholic to the core, but no lover of Rome,"; McWhirter spars with God, "the maker of disasters,"; but avoids sarcasm or irony.

No sermonizing here and no abstractions. McWhirter is a master of grounded language: cleats, drumlin, podding, whin, mangle, spud, filcher; are they Irishisms? What matters is that the lingua N. Ire-Landica is perfect for this earthling poet's purpose.

Why no index? This affectation appears to be coming into vogue these days. A note to editors: how is the reader to relocate a poem, especially if the poet sometimes chooses to leave off titles? McWhirter leaves the reader confused with his occasional stubborn refusal to title; one doesn't know if the page is a new poem or a continuation of the poem that came just before. Provide an alphabetical index of first lines at the least!
Small quibbles. He uses European names for B.C. birds (tomtit?). At least he admits he's embarrassed he cannot put the right name to the bird. If you are writing about Vancouver, not Belfast, get a local bird field guide!

Entertaining does not denote trivial. There is somber material here on war, addiction and faith. Sport as religion, water wastage, the destruction of the Amazon forest, McWhirter can turn every conceivable topic into a fresh poem.

The love poems to Angela, his wife of more than four decades, are teasing appreciations. His wisecracking about her cooking, gardening and table manners is a tattered camouflage through which tenderness is revealed. (Apologies from the reviewer but without an index, it's hard to relocate these poems in order to quote from them.)

Besides being the first Poet Laureate of Vancouver, McWhirter also qualifies as the Poet Laureate of Asthmatics, "the constant cranking of my respiration, somewhat antique."; Sans self-pity, the state of the poet's lungs is just one more allusion in his encyclopedic accounts.

"Orange peels as dropped bloomers of the sun!"; McWhirter is a silly, (read blessed) idiot! Eclectic and inventive, these are the most entertaining poems to come along in a long time, seriously. 987-0-88982-234-4

The Anachronicles by George McWhirter (Ronsdale $15.95)

The place itself is La Audiencia Beach in Mexico. Instead of portraying history only from the present looking backwards, McWhirter also has the past looking forward to foresee and comment on what is to happen as a result of the early exploration. Here, Hernán Cortés and his Lieutenant-Conqueror of Colima, Sandoval, appraise the antics of Bo Derek and other stars as they make the movie 10 - on the same beach where four hundred years earlier their crews built three brigantines to explore what is now called the Sea of Cortez. The verse-logs then follow explorer Don Caamaáo and his successors up the Pacific Coast to where John McKay (aka Sean McKoy), an Irishman, was left to recuperate from a sickness among the Nootka/Nuu-chah-nulth on Vancouver Island.

George McWhirter presently serves as Vancouver's inaugural Poet Laureate.

1-55380-54-0

[by Hannah Main-van der Kamp]