The Good Life

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

Vancouver publisher Brad Cran demonstrates a thoughtful, eclectic
intelligence in this debut poetry collection. Although one of his poems,
“The Murder of a Young Italian,” denounces the killing of an
anti-globalization protester, any apparent radicalism is not apparent in
his politics. His literary discourse is reasoned and measured.

Despite his prudence, this poet can fail spectacularly. In “Paradise,
Dominica,” he proclaims, “then Ansel Adams masturbated / between
shots.” Cran may be trying to state that the great American
photographer was deeply moved by beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, this
startling word-picture does not turn his audience into virtual tourists
in “Paradise.” Instead, the reader becomes Jay Leno, countering a
feckless Tonight Show guest’s obnoxious anecdote with the statement,
“That’s more information than I needed to know!” (Not all the
author’s failures are spectacular, self-inflicted wounds. In
“Cityscape XV,” he recalls seeing “an old classmate throw a
newspaper box / through a storefront window on the news” during a
Vancouver Stanley Cup riot.)

This book’s thoughtful verse is the product of an educated
imagination. “Cityscape V”’s concluding line, “There is no
beast. We slouch towards ourselves” echoes W.B. Yeats’s celebrated
query, “And what rough beast ... / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be
born?” Equally cultured people may conclude that the poet is more
existential than his 20th-century predecessor. Brad Cran’s poetry is
accessible, cerebral, and human in every sense of the word.