Some Late Adventure of the Feelings

Laura M. Robinson is assistant professor of children’s literature at
Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario.

Perhaps I read too much Margaret Atwood poetry, but it feels strange to
come across a volume of poetry that celebrates a romantic relationship.
This volume does just that, exploring and investigating the
poet-persona’s feelings of love for S when they are together, when
they are separated, when he awaits her arrival. In many ways, these
poems can be characterized by their obsessive nature. His desires for S
are so overwhelming and all-consuming that one almost wishes he would
get some therapy. Some of the poems are too sweet and over-the-top. In
“Vitamins,” for example, he claims not to need the vitamins that S
now has him on: “the winter sun streaming over a shared Globe,
deep-night / tumblers of scotch, and your breath feathering my cheek. /
Nothing, love, will keep me better than these.” His explorations of
his love for S turn her into art; the effect of this is to idealize S
rather than draw her as a real person.

That said, Sinnett’s strength is his fresh turn of phrase, his
nuanced insight, and his ability to marvel over the small moments that
count. In “Oranges,” for example, he writes of a couple walking down
the street, eating tangerines, “that tiny parade of two taking
place.” It is this easy ability to turn the daily into a wonder that
marks Sinnett’s poetry as something special. His notes at the end of
the volume are the most interesting, well-wrought exploration of their
relationship as he acknowledges the always uncertain future.