A Plague Year Journal

Alan Robinson is National Sales Manager of Paper E. Clips Inc. in
Toronto.

Estok, a Canadian poet and teacher who succumbed to the aids virus in
1989, produced this collection of poetry during the final year of his
life. It is a riveting collection, haunting and unsettling. Although
intended as a journal-record of one man’s life and senseless death,
these works rise beyond their subject to address the larger questions
confronting humanity. War, hunger, lust, and loneliness all act as
metaphors for the devastation unleashed by this terrifying affliction.

Estok succeeded in investing his poetry with a universal and timeless
quality. His urgency to confront his fear and anger, to try to make
sense of the hopeless nature of existence, has resulted in a triumphant,
powerful book. This poetry, this nightmare journal, this treatise on the
horror of aids, is often brilliant and never less than compelling.