Sheets of Glass

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
author of Calling Texas.

This is a good first book. The style is often too plain and easy, but
there are good images throughout, along with a gift for narrative and
the exploration of character. The poems’ settings and themes are
steeped in New Brunswick. Readers will be reminded of Alden Nowlan, but
the poems are not derivative. Many of the poems center around work in a
hardware store; hence the title. These poems have body and depth and
compare well with the best “work poetry” being written today. It is
good to see a young poet going beyond the personal. Henderson is less
successful in his sequence about John, a brain-injured neighborhood boy.
Some of the poems in Sheets of Glass explore family relationships in a
touching way; others evoke nature with precision. Henderson needs to
broaden his scope and enrich his style, but this collection establishes
him as a talent to watch.