The Pangs of Sunday

Bob Lincoln is Head of the Acquisitions Department at the University of
Manitoba Libraries.

More than a decade of Thesen’s writing is contained in The Pangs of
Sunday. This work is both a selection of earlier poems and a number of
newly crafted poems in which the language is again fresh, contemporary,
lovely, and nonchalant (for example “My horse and I”).

There are narrative lyrics (“The Parrot”) as well as the sustained,
delicate tension of natural imagery and fecundity. In many of the poems
Thesen seizes the moment, gathers momentum, pulls the images together
until the time for ending is ripe and full (“Winter and then
Summer”).

There are lines that are brief, but critical, as in “Doubletalk,”
where the central figure embraces a French culture with a “singularly
untrue heart.” While writing poems that appear to be spontaneous and
of the moment, Thesen has a detachment and a perspective that give these
poems credibility and depth. This distance of narrative, coupled with a
direct tone, creates poems that twist and pull the reader into the
picture.

Thesen has several voices and styles: the early poems are reminiscent
of Creeley and Olsen; Holding the Pose presents more-nostalgic refrains;
and The Beginning of the Long Dash, with its urgent, pressing lines,
explores the sensual landscape, women, and men. A collection like this
is to savor.