Forests of the Medieval World

Peter Baltensperger is the editor and publisher of Moonstone Press and
the author of Arcana.

The collection, for which Don Coles won the Governor General’s Award
for poetry, consists of two separate and unconnected sections. The first
(untitled) part of the book comprises 13 poems ranging from childhood
reminiscences and love poems to reflections on dying and death. From the
opening lines of “My Death as the Wren Library” to the concluding
lines of the title poem, “Forests of the Medieval World,” Coles
explores personal relationships between lovers and among family members
and friends. Especially poignant are those poems that explore the
poet’s own relationships: “My Son at the Seashore,” “Age Two,”
and “Basketball Player and Friends.”

The 10 poems that make up the second section, entitled “The Edvard
Munch Poems,” provide some interesting insights into the life and
times, as well as the work, of the Norwegian expressionist etcher,
woodcarver, and lithographer. Emphasized are Munch’s relationships
with his mother and sister (both victims of tuberculosis when he was in
his teens), and with a lover named “Fru H.” There is something
pretentious about the author’s habit of interspersing Norwegian—and,
for some reason, German and French— expressions throughout the text
(some, but not all, are translated in footnotes). Also detracting from
the impact of the poems are several footnoted explanations.