Rootless Tree

Martin Singleton was a poet living in Toronto.

This is Hicks’s fourth book, and it is splendid. The diction is exact and innovative: “disabuse,” “splayfoot,” “vandal wind,” “ramping lions,” “whimsic message.” Imperatives abound, and the reader gladly follows, for what happens is often wise and frequently magic. As is usual with those who write free verse adroitly, Hicks also handles traditional verse-forms well.

Hicks draws from many sources: art, music, legend, and the commonplace events that his poet’s perception and his use of craft elevate into poems that will endure. Humour and a deep humanism inform an always questing mind.

Rootless Tree would be a fine achievement for a poet of any age; the fact that Hicks is now 79 makes it even more so. Many younger poets could learn from his energy, his curiosity, and his humility. This book is a distillation of years of experience wedded to passion tempered by craft. Add fine-quality paper, a series of star maps which suggest the scope of the poetry (and provide the subject-matter for one of many superb poem sequences, based on the Basque myths about Ursa Major), and a fine cover painting by George Glenn, and you have something that nobody should miss, and that everyone can learn from and enjoy.