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Some slight poetry is lite; other slight poems, too easily dismissed at a first glance, deserve re-reading. Whipple's fall into the latter category. It is not necessary for a poem to be long in order to qualify for a second reading. Neither should rhymed poetry be dismissed as dated drivel. KITES is deceptively simple in content and form but these snippets, or "feather words,"; are essentially mystic utterances. Not the /via negativa/ mysticism as in Tim Lilburn but the rapture of a St Francis.
The poet's own whimsical drawings illustrate each section. The humour, not the /ha ha/ kind, is shy. In Silverfish, the glue and rot-eating pests are compared to the wildflowers in the sayings of Jesus, "They toil not neither do they reap.";
Whipple could strengthen his pieces by crossing out some of the many abstractions such as, "life, love, death, hope, joy, faith."; Not because the Age of Faith is over, it is, but because these words have lost their impact through mis-use and over-use. He might consider being more accurate about natural details. Salmon do not spawn under lily pads.
Who would have thought that contemporary mystic verse could be so accessible? An octogenarian Blake-ian child, Whipple rewards the seasoned reader as well as those who do not read poetry because they do not "get"; it. In these pieces there is no guile; what you read is what you get: on the second reading if not the first.
As his publisher Richard Olafson puts it, "There is great erudition behind his simple verses. He was Margart Avison's favourite poet. He has also never gotten his due even though he is up there with the best of them, a true poet mystic/seer. But he lives alone, an elderly man in a high rise in Burnaby. He has never gone to literary parties, never shows his face at readings, never gives readings of his own work, just working on his poems and drawings in seclusion, with a kind of quiet integrity. He is a poet I am proud to have published (four books by him) and I am proud to be his friend.";
ISBN 987-1-897430-09-5
[BCBW 2008]
The poet's own whimsical drawings illustrate each section. The humour, not the /ha ha/ kind, is shy. In Silverfish, the glue and rot-eating pests are compared to the wildflowers in the sayings of Jesus, "They toil not neither do they reap.";
Whipple could strengthen his pieces by crossing out some of the many abstractions such as, "life, love, death, hope, joy, faith."; Not because the Age of Faith is over, it is, but because these words have lost their impact through mis-use and over-use. He might consider being more accurate about natural details. Salmon do not spawn under lily pads.
Who would have thought that contemporary mystic verse could be so accessible? An octogenarian Blake-ian child, Whipple rewards the seasoned reader as well as those who do not read poetry because they do not "get"; it. In these pieces there is no guile; what you read is what you get: on the second reading if not the first.
As his publisher Richard Olafson puts it, "There is great erudition behind his simple verses. He was Margart Avison's favourite poet. He has also never gotten his due even though he is up there with the best of them, a true poet mystic/seer. But he lives alone, an elderly man in a high rise in Burnaby. He has never gone to literary parties, never shows his face at readings, never gives readings of his own work, just working on his poems and drawings in seclusion, with a kind of quiet integrity. He is a poet I am proud to have published (four books by him) and I am proud to be his friend.";
ISBN 987-1-897430-09-5
[BCBW 2008]
Submitted on February 28, 2008 in By David.
