Advertisements for Paradise

Andrew Vaisius is a Winnipeg day-care director.

Although the inside cover calls Advertisements for Paradise a sequence of poems, I find few conscious links between them to make a chain. It would be less misleading and more to the point to call this a collection of poems. If I look for the glue in this work it is in Safarik’s humour, sensuality of language, and use of metaphor.

A sense of humour underpins Safarik’s many themes. It is a graceful humour which works without punchlines and sledgehammers. It is tonal, preferring to build on images rather than word play.

I tell you cows are beautiful creatures ...
It’s almost a holy ritual, the blessed way
green grass miraculously turns into meat


Safarik can amaze with statement: “There is exactitude / in an unmade bed,” or startle with clutter as in the poem “Naked in the Fields by Lantern Light” where, having stepped naked through forest, meadow, and garden after a sauna, Safarik concludes with the image of a lantern — “We used it as a machine / to catch the silent darkness.” He can sometimes write poetry which takes time to clarify because of his predilection for metaphor. He challenges, defines, and explains with metaphor. Frequency begets unfamiliar comparisons, yet these do not become irritating roadblocks, simply scenic detours. The best summing up for this book is his three-line poem entitled “How I Know the Sky is a River”:

The mountain ash
is covered
with salmon spawn