Animate Objects

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

Alan Wilson certainly has a flair for words in this collection. Some
poems—“Carpenter” and “Weather,” for example—are finely
etched, in the best imagist tradition. Individual metaphors, such as
“print-throttled page,” are strikingly original. And, as the poem
“Twenty Four Poets’ Haiku on the Colour Green” cleverly
demonstrates, Wilson’s own background reading is extensive.

On the other hand, some of Wilson’s images are far less commendable,
even inappropriate: “like a ruptured bladder” for instance, or
“like a ripped-loose organ.” A few of the poems read like exercises
in a poetry workshop. All too often, insightful end-comment is absent.
The final verdict, then, on Wilson’s first book of poems is “good
though not outstanding.” But the potential for his future development
is also there.