To Be Now: New and Selected Poems, 1989–2003

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.

This volume of Marty Gervais’s poems suffers from a sameness in style;
too often he relies on long narratives in very short lines. Taut lyrics
are not his metier. But there are discoveries to be made. His background
as a journalist ties him to the observable world, so that he creates
scenes that the reader can visualize. He has some fine poems about his
Catholic childhood in Windsor, and he has a sharp eye for the small
dramas of family life. Humour pervades the collection. His poem about
“Carpet Salesmen” in Istanbul is especially amusing, worthy of
comparison with Earle Birney’s travel poems. In a witty poem titled
“This Is What I Know About Penises,” he asks, “Is masturbation /
exciting because it is sex / with someone you pity?” He also deals
movingly with grief and love.