Trenchmist

Mark Bastien was a Toronto-based journalist.

William H.L. West, the father of the author of this collection of poems, was a veteran of the two world wars. He served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War of 1914-18. His tales and memories of that war are chronicled in Trenchmist, David West’s fourth book of poems. West’s blend of poetry and history, which first appeared in the 1977 Franklin and McLintock, is a kind of narrative documentary — the author calls it “poetic storytelling.” The events and people are not necessarily real, but they portray the reality of World War I.

The best poems in this collection are the straightforward reminiscences of the months on the front line. “Enlistments, Returns, Reflections,” “Corporal and the Smoker,” and “Poker” all give vivid depictions of the fighting Canadians in the muddy, stinking trenches. A young soldier is ostracised by his buddies for not sharing his cigarettes. A poker game is interrupted by enemy shelling. A veteran returns from Europe, manages a bank in Vancouver for a year, then dies of influenza. Each of these evocative poems (which could pass in appearance for short short stories) is a miniature docu-drama.

But West sometimes falters when he lets his images become more important than his stories. Although he writes simply and clearly, he has a knack for hollow, obvious images. It is unfortunate to see “trees like tombs” in a book of poems about war. Also, West has the unnerving habit of ending (or rather, not ending) poems with ellipses. This “to be continued” effect cheapens the stories, giving them a cheesy midday soap-opera feel. This is too bad, because Trenchmist is a well-meaning, pleasant book — a modest memorial for Canada’s war veterans.