Botero's Beautiful Horses

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

Northern Quebec poet Jan Conn is now a professor of Biomedical Sciences at the State University of New York-Albany. Her Latin American research gave her a knowledge of the region that inspires some of her poetry. An advanced education developed her advanced sensibility, although four of her poems were published in enROUTE, Air Canada’s inflight magazine. Such unexpected accessibility is balanced by her unusually academic approach to her craft—this book actually contains a bibliography.

Conn provides informative notes, but will not spoon-feed her audience. “Tower Song” contains a reference to “Lamarck’s inherited musculature” and an “outmoded TV song we once sang along to.” Readers who were never taught about French evolutionary theorist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck or cannot remember the classic American television program Sing Along with Mitch must visit the library. Other poems merely require viewers to use their imaginations. Not surprisingly, the best example of such creativity is to be found in the surreal imagery of “Spanish Insane Asylum, 1941.” Phrases such as “Today the bison of Altamira thunder through the clinic” can be viewed as either the component of an absurdist artwork or an inmate’s hallucination. The author establishes herself through personal knowledge and creative whimsy, but displays poetic skill with her ability to manipulate language. “Yellow Dog” begins with “Nightlong in my dream” and ends with “in my dream nightlong.” This creates a circular rhythm that animates her text. The best selections offer the most intellectual poetry that is currently available in Canada. The worst appear to be mental exercises constructed for someone else’s pleasure.

Jan Conn has assembled a challenging compilation—not everyone can ride Botero’s Beautiful Horses.