When the Stones Fly Up

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia and is the
co-editor of Four Realities: Poets of Northern B.C.

This collection of short, mostly personal, poems is divided into three parts. The first, set in the present, contains poems that emphasize immediacy of experience, with a lot of present-tense verbs and a lot of visible action. “Caught in the news” (pp. 28-29), about being on strike, is especially strong in showing the unfolding of events and the alienation of finding oneself a part of the news. The middle section is the strongest part of the book. Zieroth focuses his attention on the past: his youth in Manitoba. Particularly good are pieces such as “1956: Mrs. Wrungen, storekeeper” (pp. 41-42) and “1956: the old Lutheran pastor” (pp. 49-50), poems in which the subject is also the speaker. Zieroth steps out of himself to recreate a character from his past. In the third part of the book placement in time is not important. The poet is more concerned with the big questions, concerns beyond time, than with personal experiences. These last poems are ones of asking rather than telling.

This is a good book. It is short, but it covers a lot of territory.