The Ultimate Garden

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

The four parts of this extended poem-sequence are entitled “The Other
Land,” “The Cosmic Cup,” “The Ultimate Garden,” and “The
White Philosopher.” These intense images give a reasonable indication
of what we can expect. The verse itself is framed by a two-page summary
(as if the poems might not speak for themselves) and a two-page
biography of effusive self-advertisement (where we are informed that
“Patricia was interviewed recently on cable television” and that she
and her son are members of the La Salle Horticultural Society). There is
also, inevitably, a full-page photograph.

In between, the poems contain such memorable lines as “dancing by the
diamond flower / where the sobs of caterpillars / sluice beneath our
feet”; “the burrs which scratch your buttocks / as you climb the
twisting vine”; and “Let us drop / our winking eye teeth / into the
cosmic oyster.”

It is all very “poetical,” but Ewing’s command of words is
perhaps best illustrated by the phrase “very alone.” All in all,
this book sounds like a poor translation from a minor follower of
Rabindranath Tagore.

Very embarrassing.