Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol 1. Illus. Ed. by Michael Boughn

Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol. 1 Illus. Ed. dares to go where no book of Canadian poetry has gone before—deep into the heart of darkness epitomized by the idea of the Great White North. Except white is not dark. And the heart thing was a bit overused even by the time Conrad got around to it. In any case, recalling the fundamental elements of the Canadian struggle for identity, when he can recall anything at all, Michael Boughn takes his few, select readers on a tour through the midden heap of Canadian culture that turns into a unique confrontation with the profound questions facing the nation, like, “What's a Doukhobor,” “Did Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald really do it in a canoe,” and “What was Wyndham Lewis doing in Wawa?” No one actually able to finish this book will remain untouched by the subtle lyric voice that weaves together disparate, irrelevant, and often offensive elements of the Canadian experience into an unforgettable poem for the aged.

Watch the BookThug Interview:

Watch the Book Launch and Reading:

Praise for Michael Boughn:

“Who let this guy into the country?” —George Grant

“This is not Great Literature.” —Northrup Frye

“This stuff is so cold it’s almost hot.” —Marshall McLuhan

Reviews:

“Boughn colours outside the edges whenever the need arises and constantly surprises with the breadth of his wit. … Michael Boughn’s poems move forward with unapologetic determination, consistent in their direction, yet it is the comedy that wins over the reader.” —Michael Dennis

“Witty, smart-ass, mischievous, silly, sophisticated” —The Altered Scale Blog

“[Boughn] composes thick and playfully-dense, fully compact language poems relaying masses of information, making the play itself the purpose and the point.” —rob mclennan for Bywords

Interviews:

About writing and Canadian poetry —Open Book Toronto

Michael Boughn on why he reads and where he writes —All Lit Up

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Michael Boughn is the author of numerous books, including three volumes of poetry published by BookThug: 22 Skidoo / SubTractions – Opus minus one; Cosmographia: a post-Lucretian faux micro-epic (short listed for the GG Award for poetry in 2011); and Great Canadian Poems for the Aged Vol. 1 Illus. Ed. City – Book One, Singular Assumptions is forthcoming from BookThug. With Victor Coleman, he edited Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book which was published by the University of California Press. He was immortalized in the Globe and Mail as “an obscure, veteran poet with a history of being overlooked . . .”