Dark Halo

Wayne Ray is president of the Canadian Poetry Association and author of
Giants of the North.

This book of poetry is characterized by its juxtapositions. Burrs
reveals much about his techniques in the Poet’s Notes section. It is
here, too, that he articulates his poetic vision: “We may finally
catch up with [Buckminster] Fuller’s hopes and dreams in the
twenty-first century, when we’ll come full circle and also accept the
wisdom of other poets, including the world’s aboriginal peoples, the
first visionaries.”

While the bulk of the poems in this book revolve around the “dark and
light” side of Hitler, Stalin, and others, the strongest section,
“Veil” (poems of concealment), consists of a series of gripping,
emotional poems about a mass murderer of young co-eds, written in the
voice of the mother of one of the victims: “... everyone / tries to
reason with you. / they see the invisible veil / over your eyes, the dry
film / beyond tears when you look down / at the carpet, closing the door
/ on each of their faces.” Burrs reaches into her emotions—fear,
hatred, silence, anguish—and tags along for the ride in the
murderer’s car. A true poet.