Whetstone

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta. He is
the author of Calling Texas, Earth Prime, and Mind the Gap.

One of Lorna Crozier’s best works, Whetstone offers a variety of
themes with consummate lyrical skill. A bracing awareness of mortality
informs a number of the poems, giving the book depth. Crozier is able to
touch on the most serious themes without letting the subject matter
carry the poem alone. Memory is put to good use in family poems that are
infused with feeling without being sentimental.

Crozier has been learning from the Orient and has several delicate
poems inspired by Li Po. The spirit of Basho seems to brood over the
lines as well. In one of her best poems, “Form,” a chickadee lands
on a lily pad and has just enough weight to let water onto the pad in
order to bathe. That kind of grace sums up the book. This is truly a
mature work.