Driving the Okanagan in first snow, music (Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Lightfoot), teenage memories, college level teaching, birds and birdhouse, neighbours and mentors, the seasons-the lanky, easygoing musings in John Lent's Cantilevered Songs are reminiscent of unrushed conversations with old friends.

In this work, the Vernon-based college administrator and jazz vocalist is fascinated with joinery. "...this mystery / of joining, of intersections, corners, fits, so / damn important in everything we do, each small jazz symphony we might construct...";

So it is that Lent explores corners and intersections of things architectural, linguistic, spiritual and material, "cantilevered cathedral of stars and nebula.";

Artfully constructed on the page in cantilevered shapes, Lent's lines, though not cliffhangers, are not without risks. Philosophical but not intellectual, these longish prose poems speak of contentment and appreciation. Though not mystical, they are religious in the best sense of the word; awe, awareness and gratitude.

Lent nods to his (now relinquished) Catholic upbringing, "How to accept this vessel of flesh and bone, this home... this incarnation we are, the word made flesh, a molecular cathedral straining within itself..."; 978-1-897235-66-9

[BCBW 2009]