Queen City

Martin Singleton was a poet living in Toronto.

In “The City Called a Queen,” Raymond Souster writes of Toronto: “Strange city, /cold hateful city, /that I still celebrate and love,” and that dichotomy informs much of Queen City. Souster’s compassion for the unfortunate (“John Street,” “The Immigrant”) and dislike of institutions (“Is Everybody Happy”) coexist with his joy in the urban experience, witness of “this whirling game-life, did I hear someone say?”

Although there are no formal divisions, poems are grouped around several themes — institutions, history, memory, poetry, and nature. Many poems deal with the influx of Third World immigrants, and Souster celebrates the culture they have brought without being condescending or simplistic. Many of the newer poems are very fine, but there is no poem in Queen Citythat fails to satisfy.

The quality of Brooks’s accompanying photographs varies widely. Not a few are boring: we have all seen quite enough solitary figures against the flash and bustle of the city. Some others are technically flawed — overly grainy or blurred. At times, these techniques serve Brooks well (there are several excellent photographs in this collection, and Brooks’s use of space can be provocative) but often they add little to the excellence of the poetry. They do not, however, detract from the poems; there is little that could do that.