Harm's Way

Olga Costopoulos teaches English at the University of Alberta.

Harm’s Way is Maureen Hynes’s second collection of poems. Her first
book won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, and this one is equally
good. Its subject matter ranges over a very wide world, pausing in
places as diverse as the Australian outback and Saskatchewan, with the
poet carefully selecting the most significant image details to bring to
us. But these poems are more than an imagist’s delight. True, they
evoke each setting with clarity, yet at the same time they manage to
convey the emotional climate of every place and time presented. One of
the most original similes still haunts, from a poem called “One
Corpse”: “Open-mouthed roo ... vertebrae exposed like a musical
score.” These poems represent the hard-won insights of a mature and
intelligent poet, gifts given to us in a style that is both forthright
and subtle, clear and mysterious. Her poems about her father are as fine
a study of compassion as I’ve read in a long time. Buy this book. Buy
copies for the people you love.