Blasphemer's Wheel: Selected and New Poems

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of education at the University of
Prince Edward Island.

This collection—consisting of poems chosen by Friesen from his earlier
works, plus 23 new poems—is vintage Friesen. A recurring preoccupation
of this arch-raconteur is that most elemental of human emotions, the
need to love and to be loved. Familial love is on display in the “Pa
Poems,” intimate love in such sensuous poems as “Breasts.” A
master wordsmith, Friesen experiments with differing line lengths,
ranging from the prose-poem “shh (the window)” to the elegant
simplicity of “The Heart Shifts” and “Georgeous Coat.” One other
distinguishing feature is his use of German “asides” to summarize or
extend a thought (an end-page provides the reader with translations).
“Some voices,” says the poet, “belong to everyone”—including
Friesen’s own.