Kelly's Book Log: Dear Future by Nina Corwin

The heart is a minefield awaiting its moment.

--Nina Corwin, Dear Future, poems

It’s April, poetry month, and so I wanted to review poetry books that I discovered and fell in love with while in San Miguel de Allende this past February. I know many people don’t read poetry and I think the issue is this… you can’t read poetry the way you read other books. I keep a copy of Rumi along with a new collection of poetry beside my bed. I only read one or two poems a night. Or a few a week. Poetry to me is about inspiration, about feeding the soul, and pondering life’s big questions; it’s not about being told a story necessarily or devouring information. Having lessened my expectations, and switched my focus, I find I enjoy it so much more. I devour other books, fiction and nonfiction… but poetry is for savouring.

Anyway, if you don’t read poetry currently you could try this approach with the book below.

Dear Future is a collection of poems by Nina Corwin. We read together @thepoetryandprosecafe in SMA, and I was struck by her sense of humour and cool concepts. Her bio states that she’s a psychotherapist by day, who works with victims of violence, but she’s no slouch in the writing department either. She’s published two other collections, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her poems have been published in the Harvard Review. This collection is a series of poems described as a “tour of the bright circus that awaits us.” It kind of feels like it’s already here. Two of my favourites poems were: “Interior with Artificial Leaves” and “What to Pack for the Apocalypse.” It made me think of how we imagine the future all the time yet live with the uncertainty that we never really know what it will bring, or who our future self might be. Still in this collection Corwin was prescient. Here’s a second quote:

When heads of state play chicken

on a cliff, the speed of the hotrod is everybody’s business.

Writing Prompt:

This reminds me of the prompt--write your own literary obituary. What do you want to be on it, what do you want to leave out? 

#fridayreads

There are still some spaces left for the upcoming Writing the Flash in Flash Fiction Workshop in Nottawa, Ontario, Saturday, April 19, 1 - 5 pm. Details here: www.theartisthouse.ca