Poems: "Sailing to Babylon" by James Pollock

Poems: Sailing to Babylon by James Pollock, 2012, 9780986533877.

Committee book and, so far, best of the poetry ones.  These are more relatable to me than the poetry in ROTC Kills.  Blogger spell check does not like 'relatable'.

Some short ones.  A long one.  Several poems regarding explorers of Canada and the Northwest Passage.  Reminding me how much I enjoyed listening to Simmons's The Terror a few years ago.

Favorites?  Glenn Gould on the Telephone Was Good.  Told by Gould on tour.  Gould ends up in Tel Aviv and the desert air has provided him a substandard instrument.  He flees to the beach in frustration and imagines being back in the cold of Canada.  A vivid memory of his home takes control and he drives back to the concert hall and plays his piece as if he is physically removed from the place.  His head is in Bob and Doug McKenzie-land but his arms are in Israel.

Quarry Park is the long one.  Pollock's memory of walking through a park with his 2.5 year old son.  Pollock's mind wanders to his own time as a kid in the woods.  Thoughts on insects killing one another.  The history of the park and how a family lived there and planted many of the trees.

Many of the shorter poems are brief in content.  I mean to say Pollock takes a single, brief event and gives his thoughts and impressions of that single moment.  At least, that's what I got from it.  Case in Point is Amelia Island, Florida where Pollock's wife, child, and Pollock visit the beach and his four-year-old has great time running back and forth amongst each parent and the ocean waves.