The Merzbook: Kurt Schwitters Poems

Chris Faiers, winner of the 1987 Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award,
is author of Foot Through the Ceiling.

The Merzbook: Kurt Schwitters Poems is Colin Morton’s third book. Selections from this collection placed third in the CBC literary competition.

The poems chronicle the life of German (anti) Dadaist poet / sculptor Schwitters. The book begins with a helpful two-page chronology of his life, followed by a playful collage a la Schwitters done by Morton.

Morton’s poems are written in a variety of styles, many from Schwitters’s perspective, and others in the voices of his friends and lovers.

In only 83 pages, I learned an incredible amount of artistic and literary history. Morton has found his forte with this book, which strikes the perfect balance between playfulness and education.

Merzbook is a witty, concise, idiosyncratic masterpiece. It more than deserves to be included on course lists and in many personal and public libraries.