Segues

Allison Sivak is a librarian in the Science and Technology Library,
University of Alberta.

The poems in Segues, written in plain language and conversational tone,
are quite narrative in their style. Wakan’s subject matter ranges from
a woman who has experienced a mastectomy, to childhood memories, to
character portraits, to personal philosophical musings. The poems seldom
engage in the pleasure of language, but more so in the pleasure of
story; they are straightforward, humorous, and very accessible. The book
reads very much as a collection of musings on a disparate number of
topics, rather than a poetic whole.

Wakan’s best moments come when her humour takes a surprising turn, as
in “The meaning of life”: “Everyday he dressed and / went to work
and looked / at the jobs to be done / for the day and managed / to
strike two off the list / and add three more. / One day he decided not
to go to work but to / stay home and only work / when inspiration moved.
/ … Occasionally about three / o’clock in the morning / the meaning
of life would / occur to him and he would / jot it down on a pad he left
/ beside the bed for just / such a purpose. … / one day he got dressed
/ and went to work where he / found the list he had left / on his desk
months before. … / Back home the little woman / who had fed and
clothed him / while he worked out the / meaning of life, continued to /
do so having known all along / that there is nothing to do / in the
Universe. / You thought Thoreau didn’t / have a housekeeper?”