Lakeview

Chris Faiers, winner of the 1987 Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award,
is author of Foot Through the Ceiling.

Carpenter has given us a collection of well-written, often lyrical,
poems that cover many subjects. The main theme seems to be the contrast
and interplay of the rural and the urban experiences, especially as
these affect children and adolescents.

The book is loosely autobiographical, with the first section presenting
Carpenter’s current life in Toronto. The first poem details a night
out with the guys at a sleazy east-end Toronto bar—that rings true.
This is followed by poems which imaginatively document his children’s
lives in a metropolis. Interspersed are bittersweet memories of his own
rural childhood. The brief “Baling Hay” is especially strong: “As
I lift the bale / up to Tim on the wagon / I gasp at the rabbit /
beneath my fingers: / impaled by the spikes / of the machine, chopped /
and tied and dropped / neatly bound, like the hay / to the ground.”

The second section thoroughly details a rural adolescence. The poems
are about country dances, drinking, and driving recklessly down country
roads.

The final section deals with death and mourning. It includes the fine
“Eulogy for H. MacKay,” about an old apple farmer and his wife who
are reluctantly moved to a city retirement home, their view of the
waters off Prince Edward County replaced by a tv screen.

Overall the book is enjoyable, a successful meditation on its main
theme of bucolic versus urban. (The collection would be stronger,
however, if the sections were more thematically organized.)

This reviewer looks forward to reading Carpenter’s next series of
reflections.