The Inner Ear: An Anthology of New Poets

Bruce K. Filson was a freelance writer and critic residing in Chesterville, Ontario.

This is an anthology of eleven lesser-known poets: Susan Glickman, St. John Simmons, Robyn Sarah, Jim Smith, Ken Stange, Ronnie Brown, Robert Billings, Ross Leckie, John Barton, Margo Swiss, Ronn Silverstein. They range in age from 26 to 40. This book fills an important need. As editor Gary Geddes puts it in his introduction: “the present infrastructure of literary publishing cannot even accommodate the important mature writers, let alone publish the finest of the new crop.” New they may be, but not unproven, as their publishing records show.

Statements like “this poetry is alive and aware” and “this poetry doesn’t abuse language, but coaxes the words into speaking for themselves” — true though they be for these many poems — are too much a shotgun-style criticism. When it comes to a flock of poets, you just have to pick and choose. What follows is one man’s opinion.

The four women are really better than the seven men. I don’t know why. If I had to pick three finalists, I’d pick Glickman, Barton, and Sarah for their depth, singularity, and especially clarity. Honourable mentions to Margo Swiss, Ross Leckie, and Ronnie Brown. The others (and some of the above in bad moments) are just too glib or too wrapped up in clichéd literary pretensions.

If I had to pick one winner ... the envelope please ... I’d pick Robyn Sarah. She has her cadence down perfectly. She deals with everyday experience in an uncommon, evocative, and provocative way. She can capture the mood of a decade lost in a few brief strokes. I could go on and on.

Susan Glickman runs a close second. Her poem “The Knocking” is the best one in The Inner Ear. Geddes wisely puts it right at the front. Her other poems are good, but a little too casual for me, though I know we live in a casual age.