The Speed of the Wheel Is Up to the Potter

Betsy Nuse, the former owner of Boudicca Books, is a Vancouver poet,
writer, and editor.

The Speed of the Wheel . . . adds another strong debut volume to the
interesting Quarry Press New Canadian Poets series. This is a varied and
satisfying collection of free verse that seems to flow from two
traditions: the work poetry of Tom Wayman and the female realism of
Bronwen Wallace.

The first of the book’s three sections, “Allegiances,” collects
poems about places: the New Brunswick of the author’s childhood;
Vancouver, where she lives now; workplaces; and vacation places. The
second section, “Crumpled Smiles,” describes people and experiences
from working life. In the final section, “Vanishing Point,” the
subjects of the poems range widely from militarism through mourning
personal loss to recollections of family and childhood.

Shreve’s language does not have the fire or encrustation of the new
Baroque poets, but at the same time her feelings and ideas are not
encoded in minimalist semaphore. I wish more of her poems were grounded
in emotion, but the scope of her vision is so broad and her language so
clear that I look forward to her next collection and the development of
her poetic voice.