Winter

Bob Lincoln is Head of the Acquisitions Department at the University of
Manitoba Libraries.

Winter is a marvelous book of poems. Several were published in the
Prairie magazine Border Crossings in 1989, and more were added to bring
the collection’s total to 45 poems. Each bears the title “Winter”
and a number; yet each is unique and fascinating because it has captured
a moment, like amber.

These poems are stories and introspections with characters who are
referred to in the third person, as if they are incidental to the larger
forces at work. The harshness of winter is never addressed directly; it
is seen in asides and thoughts, out of the corner of the eye.

Winter is perplexing in what it does to the outside and inside of the
observer; the two come together. In “Winter 11” a man strokes the
white fur of an animal; the animal grows larger. He thinks of the first
cell, and the last. He plucks a hair and swallows it: “This is what it
is like, / all these choices without refusal, / only waiting to see if
you are right.”

Lane is asking us to consider what we see, and to interpret our
surroundings carefully. Some of the poems are very short, but nearly
lethal in their simplicity: “The magpies wait in the bare tree. / They
cry out for the dead. // There is no food / in this place where nothing
moves. // This is what he likes. All this hunger / and nowhere to
hide” (“Winter 12”).

The shifting focus of these poems and their stylized ambiguities mirror
the subjects of love, hope, and memory. Lane never slips in his writing;
the language is never sentimental. Winter is a time for reflection and
consideration, and this collection is perfect for that.