Hot Poppies

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

People who have attended the annual Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, near
Guelph, Ontario, may know Leon Rooke as its artistic director. Those who
are familiar with late-20th-century Canadian literature may know about
his novels, such as Fat Woman (1980) and Shakespeare’s Dog (1983).
Short-story fans may have read one of his collections, such as Muffins
(1995). Few are aware of his poetry, a situation that Hot Poppies may
alter.

Rooke’s verse is salted with topical pop-culture references. Since
topicality is now an old literary device, known to discerning readers,
he must skilfully incorporate the contemporary world into his verse. He
succeeds in his poem “Martha Stewart Living.” This title refers to a
popular home magazine, but it is set in a Dominion supermarket. A man
asks an impatient woman whether the packaged breasts in the poultry
section come from “free range chickens.” She replies, “‘I
don’t suppose those are free-range. I suppose those are dead
chickens.’” Title and text enable readers to contrast the attitudes
of the professional homemaker with those of the cynical customer.

Unfortunately, Rooke’s whimsical Britney Spears verses fail, and his
political commentary is only marginally successful. In “Continuation
of the James Tate Poem ‘The Condemned Man,’” a prison warden
discusses hurricanes with the title character, noting that “‘those
Bush brothers are on the job.’” The political climate that permits
this predictable jibe against America’s president also encourages
rapper Kanye West and the other dissidents who have beaten him to the
punch.

The book offers other types of poems, but Rooke’s topical verse
stands the best chance of retaining old fans and attracting new ones.