Map of Dreams

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

Map of Dreams is a collection of connected poems about a voyage—or at
least the dream of a voyage the poet has—in which he imagines himself
as his great-grandfather under sail to India. Although the regular laws
of time and space are occasionally suspended here, the collection is
imbued with a remarkable clarity, such as we often experience in our own
dreams. The dream voyage is also a spirit quest in which the traveler
faces and conquers his fear of the unknown, continually testing himself
against adversity. That the voyage ends before India is reached is not
important because it is what we learn along the way and then
subsequently apply in our lives that counts.

This thoroughly enjoyable short book is wonderfully satisfying.