Paper Hotel

Susan McKnight is an administrator of the Courts Technology Integrated Justice Project at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

Rob McLennan says a lot in a few words. He writes about everyday things
in everyday language, but there is a subtle catch to each poem. A single
reading is not enough. The simplicity gives it the edge. As Eric Folsom
remarked when writing about McLennan’s poetry, “a successful poem is
a little closer to being a miracle, a living thing on the knife edge
between clarity and chaos.”

McLennan’s thoughts are very real, very earthy, and very much about
life. He approaches the mundane and the lofty with equal ease, making it
so simple to identify mutual sensations and realizations: “somewhere
in the memory, of who / was writing, leading hands. I keep them /
because of the illustrations, / not for what was said, a history / of
shoeboxes. You know / the lie. Some words have a half life / shorter
than others. I remember you / in amber.”

Paper Hotel is McLennan’s seventh published collection of poetry. He
is also a visual artist and critic, as well as the editor and publisher
of above/ground press and Stanzas magazine.