Forgetting How to Fly

Donalee Moulton-Barrett was a writer and editor in Halifax.

Mark Lowey, a reporter for the Calgary Herald. is used to examining the lives of other people. In Forgetting how to Fly, Lowey’s first collection of poems, he examines the nuances of his own life.

It is a touching examination. Lowey writes with a gentleness that conveys both honesty and determination. But this is not simply an anecdotal “This is my life” review. It is a sensitive, often penetrating, and certainly songlike collection that speaks persuasively to readers of their own experience and emotions.

I leaned into space,
you into me,
arms circling like rings.
I warmed my hands
on your breasts,
your body turned
with more purpose
than a world.

( From “Leaning Into Space.”)

Lowey is at his best in poems like “Leaning into Space.” He brings the global down to earth and readers recognize that perhaps what is most important here is not what has been said, but what has remained unsaid — the links we share with one another. A deep and integral link evoked by an image, a phrase, a common experience. As we read Forgetting how to Fly, we are back with Mark Lowey putting words on the page, memories in black and white — and leaving the grey areas to an imagination that soars and takes us along for the ride.