Too Spare, Too Fierce

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the author of Calling Texas and Earth Prime.

Although the title poem of this book does not refer to his practice of
poetry, Patrick Lane’s verse is certainly spare and fierce. Many of
his poems are written in a lean style dominated by vivid elemental
images (earth, air, fire, water) and fierce emotions; but as always in
Lane’s books, gentleness is mixed in with the ferocity. There are some
brutally explicit poems about sex and violence (“The Calf” is about
bestiality, and a beheaded chicken makes a trademark entrance), but two
of the collection’s best poems convey empathy for hunted cougars. (In
Lane’s work, a visionary intensity collides with a world where, as
Hobbes put it, life is often nasty, brutish, and short.) Another
excellent piece is “Praise,” a work in eight sections permeated by
strange images with an almost occult flavor. One of Lane’s gifts is
his ability to evoke mysteries.