All the God-Sized Fruit

Olga Costopoulos teaches English at the University of Alberta.

Shawna Lemay’s first collection of poems is itself the first fruit of
a goddess-sized talent. Lest such praise be suspect for its
extravagance, I hasten to point out that the book has already won the
Gerald Lampert Award and the Stephen Stephanson Poetry Prize offered by
the Writers Guild of Alberta. The collection includes many poems
inspired by still-life paintings and by still-life painters. The poet
not only bridges gaps between painting and viewer, she gives us a world
in which all art—not just the painter’s—is created. These poems
dazzle and delight. Some are profound in their understanding and
communication of the conditions of life and the artist’s living of it.
Others reveal a wit that rivals Moliиre. It is impossible to choose one
poem to quote; every one is a gem to be enjoyed, examined for the
precision of its cut, and set into the heart.