These Lawns

Laurence Steven is Chairman of the English Department at Laurentian
University and author of Dissociation and Wholeness in Patrick White’s
Fiction.

These Lawns is a refreshing new collection of poetry by Saskatchewan
native Reid. Although the poetry cannot be strictly classified, since
form and content vary from poem to poem, the vivid and thoughtful
imagery is consistent throughout.

Reid transforms the simplest of objects into a vision of beauty. In
“What to Do with Orange Peels,” he has thrown orange peels onto a
fire and describes the picture of great beauty produced. The originality
of this poem is an example of Reid’s uncanny ability, so much like
William Carlos Williams’s, to transform the unexpected into awesome
reality.

Reid also focuses on places in his region of Canada, such as Gwynne
Outlet, and walks readers through them, creating such acute images that
we feel we have been there. He also is successful in creating a feeling
of familiarity, as in “The Fern,” where he describes a scene that
could be found in anyone’s living room: a fern on a plant stand, with
catalogues propping it up.

In “These Lawns” Reid makes unique use of dialogue, and meshes
observations of nature with the everyday chore of cutting the lawn:
“And yet, starting the lawn mower, between pulls, he heard the
agitation / of a yellow warbler in the lilacs, flickering as if it were
early morning / sunlight.” The result is a thought-provoking piece
that stands apart from the others, and deserves to give its title to the
book.

In “A Dry Month” he attempts typography reminiscent of e.e.
cummings, but he does not quite succeed in achieving the desired effect.
However, his overwhelmingly physical poem “Waterslide” redeems him
in the reader’s mind. This poem’s layout, diction, and imagery take
us on such a realistic run down a waterslide that we are mentally soaked
by the end of the poem.

Reid’s previous poetry books have been well received and critically
acclaimed, and These Lawns should follow suit.