Blowing Holes Through the Everyday

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

The problem with Dalton’s book, her first collection of poems, is that
it does not blow holes through the everyday. The poems are mostly
agreeable apprentice work in which the poet describes some common
experiences as a liberal-minded tourist, as a family member, as a
friend. In her preface, she suggests that life is a mystery and that
poetry is one of our links to the magical. The poems tend to assume the
mystery rather than give a sense of it, and the language is too prosaic
to enchant us. She is at her best when a situation carries its own
interest, as in “Tests,” a poem about an excruciatingly painful
medical examination. In “Cock-Teasers” she has an amusing
interpretation of the motivation behind a commonly deplored kind of
behavior. Dalton has talent, but this book seems premature.