Sledgehammer and Other Poems

Susan McKnight is an administrator of the Courts Technology Integrated Justice Project at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

John MacKenzie takes the reader on a journey through Canada that can
best be understood by knowing that he has had firsthand experience
working his way across the country in sawmills, bakeries, and kitchens,
and on construction crews and farms.

The book is divided into three parts: “Fragrant as Metal (from the
west),” “Pocket of Sky (through the centre),” and “Sledgehammer
(to the east).” He writes with passion, using brutally beautiful
imagery that relates to both the geography and the occupations
synonymous with the area about which he is writing. The first section is
the most subdued, yet there is a feeling of restlessness about these
poems. This section also seems to be quite personal, including one
loving poem dedicated to his son Connor. The second section that
references Ontario is filled with cynicism and distaste: “because
Ontario is overdone in everything / from geographical limits to lawn
décor / imagination has merged with the digestive tract.” This
section ends with a powerful tribute to a man killed in a construction
accident.

MacKenzie shows his true colors in the third part. A native of Prince
Edward Island, he paints this section with lush, passionate images that
convey his intense love of the land: “somewhere in the middle of this
Island / god spoke blood, the soil drank” and “but this Island is
the neckbone of some ancient & gentle beast / some immense dragon
bathing in the salty gulf, waiting.” He writes of the hard birthing of
a calf with compassion and understanding just as easily as he writes of
a debate between life and death. Both rage and love stride through his
poetry with a force worthy of the title of the book.

John MacKenzie is a member of the editorial board of blue SHIFT: A
Journal of Poetry.