The Dream of Being

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

bill bissett is viewed as one of this country’s first “literary
hippies.” Jack Haas, who was born in 1966—one year before the
“Summer of Love”—may be one of the last. The poet’s first three
books chronicled his spiritual journeys. Skeptics may wonder if his
latest collection is an elaborate joke. Although it may inspire
unintentional laughter, there is some worthy intentional humour. “The
Hunted” features “an African antelope so timid that is can be slain
... [by] ... its own heartbeat.” This is a wonderfully macabre example
of the ultimate extent of anxiety.

Some of the phrases in the six “logos” poems, such as “The tether
is in the ether ... an appointment with disappointing ointment,” may
lead critics to wonder whether the author is imitating avant-garde
Canadian poets or American rappers. Other phrases, such as “We dreamt
that we were dreaming, and then that we / were dreaming that we were
dreaming,” are merely repetitive.

Groovy ’60s relics may believe that one needs to rise to a higher
level of consciousness to appreciate this work. Others might reply that
bad sitar music and “Maui wowee” marijuana is all that is necessary.