Low Water Slack

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

The title of this excellent book refers to a time of low tide when
fishing is suspended. “Low water slack” is a time for relaxation and
reflection, a change of pace from the fish harvest. It summarizes the
setting and the tone of this collection. The Fraser River salmon fishery
provides the context and the images. The book is awash in the blood of
salmon and the water of ocean and river. In Bowling’s hands, the
subject becomes rich and evocative. At times the book is personal and
reflects his love and respect for the salmon and the lives of the
fishers. At other times it is a historical look at the people who have
plied the Fraser fishery for over a century. Always it points to larger
implications of life and death and ethical choices.

The book opens magnificently with “Ladner,” a Whitmanesque piece
that transforms the land (and sea) scape of Vancouver and environs into
mythic territory: “Vancouver traffic rises blinking going from the
black / depths of the George Massey Tunnel.” This is an emergence into
a new world, a journey from the city to the sea, from present to past,
from public life and commerce to private life and endeavor that is not
motivated entirely by profit. These concerns, introduced in
“Ladner,” are explored and developed through the rest of the
collection.

Bowling has worked on the boats, and his memories provide the concrete
details that make this book so real. He proclaims in “After Proust”:
“Nothing so delicate as a madelaine / but the smell of blood and oil
takes me back / to those deep black waters and the salmon’s silver /
pause, deciding when to spawn and die.”

Do not expect a romanticized version of the fisher’s life. Do expect
a first-rate book.