Mapping the Soul: Selected Poems, 1978-1998

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

Stephen Morrissey, a literature and humanities professor at Montreal’s
Champlain College, has anthologized his poetry, offering selections from
his earliest to most recent books, as well as a sample of unpublished
new verse. The most dramatic contrast between his older poems and his
more recent verse can be found in the former’s “nonconformist”
style. Unconventional spellings (“enuf”), unfamiliar abbreviations
(“cld” for “could”), and uncapitalized proper nouns create the
impression that the younger poet was rebellious or had merely adopted a
“freewheelin’ ” 1970s style.

The restive poet was no outlaw, but merely a victim of circumstance.
Some poems from The Compass (1993) feature the rejected husband. The
Mystic Beast’s (1997) verse present the fatherless boy. In both cases,
the poet tries to sort out traumatic events with engaged objectivity and
understated emotions.

As time passes, Morrissey chooses to reveal himself to the reader. In
the 1970s, his poetic voice was more detached, even omniscient. Certain
poems from The Trees of Unknowing (1978), such as “because reality is
too much” and “are we not explorers,” offer abstract philosophy.
Two decades later, the whole man is revealed—Montreal Catholic
background, family histories, personal traumas, secret desires, and all.


Morrissey’s chief strength is his ability to offer unsentimental
insights, such as his description of himself as a “socially acceptable
autistic” in “The Whip.” His greatest weakness is the erotic
concepts of “The Yoni Rocks.” This poem’s title refers to
vaginally shaped geological formations. The concept activates hecklers,
not censors; one person’s insight is another’s dirty joke.

Mapping the Soul gives readers the opportunity to see the poet develop
and the man emerge.