The Difficulty of Living on Other Planets

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

An upside-down umbrella on the dust jacket announces that this is “An adult entertainment.” And so it is. The content and wordplay are geared for a more advanced reader than the child listening to the fun of Jelly Belly.

The collection of 33 poems meets different moods. Some will tickle your sense of humour, such as “The Academic Odyssey of Wendell Grebe,” which traces Grebe’s journey from newly appointed professor in Calgary to “lecturer extensional / On derricks at Leduc, “ to Athabasca, to an insane asylum.

Others, such as the lengthy “The Revenge of Santa Claus,” are satiric portrayals. “Revenge” satirizes the rampant commercialism of Christmas in language parodying “The Night Before Christmas.” The essence of Santa Claus is ruined by self-serving magnates, but in the end the real Santa triumphs and the magnates become alligator food.

“Bard of the Universe” is a vivid suggestion of Toronto in Ancient Mariner style. “As I was going to the gents / I met a man of little sense” who talked continuously, yet “His drift was dim, his point confused.” “The Cat and the Wizard” is a fanciful tale of a cat expecting company for dinner at Casa Loma. With each reading the last line — “The wizard is me” — makes you re-read the poem yet again for a different interpretation.

“1838” is Lee at his best, showing off his natural ease with words heavy with meaning. “But who will speak for Canada? / Mackenzie, come again!”

The poems range from short bits of nonsense to long complex ballads. Current colloquialisms — Muzak, spray-gunned, the “mind’s display” — blend smoothly in the poems, all of which attest to Lee’s talent with words.