Clinic Day

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

Toronto poet Diana Fitzgerald Bryden takes a proven route to literary
success: poetry credits in North American publications or anthologies
and a verse collection entitled Learning Russian. Clinic Day is an
opportunity to solidify her position.

Bryden establishes a thematic structure by centring this work around
three characters: a secretary, the surgeon who employs her, and a
homeless patient named Blake. Blake has a shadowy, intriguing past. We
discover that “he’s dreaming of Annapolis,” but never learn if
this reference is to the Maryland city or the Nova Scotia valley.

This collection is effectively set in Toronto. “Tower and Dome”
celebrates the city. Bryden introduces its distinctive landmark as
“the CN Tower / that unplunged hypodermic,” proving that it is
actually possible to describe it without a direct phallic reference. She
affirms the vitality of a megacity that offers popular theatre, iconic
youth-oriented music television, and a crowded Planet Hollywood
franchise.

Subtle social commentary seems inevitable. In “Eye Eye Eye,” Bryden
notes that her city’s slogan—“Industry, Intelligence,
Integrity!”—is the authorities’ “sensible alternative to
revolutionary cry.” Here the mordant smartass marks capitalism’s
triumph. Her concluding haiku sequence compares Starbucks to a church;
that chain claims urban streetscapes and literary landscapes.

The poet’s reputation stands until her projected novel is released.