Revenge of the optimist / Lesley Choyce.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Choyce, Lesley, 1951-

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

95 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Victoria, B.C. : Ekstasis Editions, 2004.

Summary:

Lesley Choyce's poetry is transcendental, joyful and at times ecstatic, though rooted securely in the world. The new poems in Revenge of the Optimist are charged with a kind of soulful music and are distinguished by wide tonal flavours and range. Lesley Choyce has said of his writing that "Poetry arises from events, real or imagined, that stir the intellect and emotions to re-create, through words, the full impact of life's greatest challenges... the best poetry comes about from the compassion that develops in a writer, the compassion necessary to understand the pain and joy of others while at the same time being able to work with one's own suffering as a source for emotional honesty in all that is written."

Contents:

Writing Down the Wind 9

All the Water in the World 10

The Universal Application 12

Arguments About Tradition 14

Threes 17

The Pond 19

The Novel 20

The Body Trains Itself But Not the Mind 22

The Afterlife: Some Theories and Propositions About Death 24

Self-Knowledge 31

Hauling Seaweed for My Garden 32

Crossing Route One 33

This Poem is the Room 35

Report from the Republic of Morning 36

Davey Oickle: Regrets 38

Three Ravens Eating Spaghetti 39

The Sophistication of Pencils 40

Notebook Poem 42

Flying the Idea to Vancouver 43

Morning Editorial 45

Minesville, October 19, 2001 48

On the Beach with Marcus Aurelius 51

March 18, 2003 52

Hiking to Lake No Good 53

Kafka's New Shoes 60

Ice at Sunset 61

History Lesson 63

Poem for Leander's Garage 65

The Garden in the Rain 67

Heading Into Tomorrow 69

What We Discussed in Literature Class Today 71

Cradling His Disappointment 72

Take a Deep Breath 74

Driving North With the Dalai Lama 75

Creative Writing Class Notes

II Politics and the English Language 79

III Plot 81

IV Afternoon Lecture on Impossible Solutions as the Only Valid Ones for Fiction 82

V The Professor Off on a Tangent 83

VI Some Final Thoughts on Politics and Boy Scout Principles 85

VII Writer's Block 86

VIII Final Advice 87

The Certainty of Poems 88

Burning the Mail 90

The Language of Broken Things 91

Making Acquaintance with the Book 93

April 6 94.

ISBN:

1894800435 :

OCLC:

52920548