Opening a suitcase of birds
March 13th, 2023
Former chair of Creative Writing at Douglas College, Calvin Wharton has published his second collection of poetry, This Here Paradise (Anvil $18), which is balm for a troubled world facing a number of existential crises. There is a recognition that “paradise” has both highs and lows but Wharton ends on a high note. According to publicity the tension in these poems resolves through the book’s five sections “as Wharton opens a suitcase of birds and watches them soar over a landscape alive with radiant, open waters.” Wharton’s first book of poems was The Song Collides (Anvil, 2011), described as a “metaphysical investigation” of the natural world. He has also published two poetry chapbooks, Visualized Chemistry from Tsunami Editions and The Invention of Birds from Alfred Gustav. He also released a collection of short fiction, Three Songs by Hank Williams (Turnstone, 2002) and co-edited East of Main: An Anthology of Poems from East Vancouver (Pulp Press, 1989) with Tom Wayman. 9781772141931
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