Written by Laura Lamont, Designed by Jess Dixon
Published by Jackpine Press
ISBN 978-1-927035-18-4 $30.00
In 2015, Saskatoon鈥檚 Jackpine Press published Lost + Found: Signposts for Steering Through the World, and the good news for the press and the book鈥檚 creators is bad news for you, readers: each of the 75 copies of this limited-edition, hardcover (millboard wrapped in craft paper, bound with fabric tape and snapped together with Chicago bolts) has already found a home. Usually one reviews books that are new and available, but it鈥檚 also worthwhile to examine a success story and introduce readers to the writer so they can watch for future works.
Let鈥檚 begin with this book鈥檚 eclectic design. If it were a painting, I鈥檇 suggest its closest to collage. If it were music, it would be jazz. Inset location diagrams represent individual poems and appear as background to each poem鈥檚 text. Imprinted cotton paper; cascading, torn vellum; a post-it-style note (that protrudes outside the book鈥檚 neat and expected rectangle); apparent 鈥渟crap paper;鈥� and pages that are coffee-cup ringed and wrinkled are all fair game for hosting poems in this little marvel of a book.
Most of us probably read a back cover before we start a book proper. There鈥檚 no blurb here, nor an author bio, which can be either disconcerting for a reader or allow them the freedom to experience the work completely without context. And what is one to make of the disparate materials, fonts (鈥渞adio silence鈥� is printed in a typewriter font), and images?
Usually a book鈥檚 title offers at least a small clue, so before I discuss the content, let鈥檚 examine that title: Lost + Found: Signposts for Steering Through the World. It suggests the world requires maps\directions\signposts (perhaps because it鈥檚 physically\emotionally convoluted), that one can easily get lost, but just as easily, found . The poems, then, would be the 鈥渟ignposts鈥�.
The first piece (a few lines on each of four pages, printed on onionskin) is called 鈥淐romniomancy,鈥� and that title had me scrambling for a dictionary: 鈥淒ivination by onions or onionsprouts.鈥� Wow, didn鈥檛 expect that. This initial poem, and those that follow, trace a first-person narrator鈥檚 journey away from a troubled past, where 鈥渟kin keeps a record, every\cut and bruise archived on vellum,鈥� and through the tremulous territory that is a new relationship.
Melancholy is clearly present in these poems. In 鈥渞adio silence,鈥� a poem first published in the esteemed journal Contemporary Verse 2, we read 鈥淣o more lying\in bed, loneliness bleeding out\in silent waves beside someone\whose face was closed to me.鈥� An inability to read others鈥� 鈥渟ignposts鈥� is also present. The poet writes of 鈥済uessing at\other people鈥檚 ciphers and codes鈥� (from 鈥淒iversions鈥�), and says 鈥渃an鈥檛 pin your face\on a wall, fit you to a scale\or give you a legend.鈥� (from 鈥淢apping Your Body鈥�)
Though the terrain is rocky, ultimately the subjects in this gorgeous collection 鈥渇use in heat and\flicker as one flame.鈥� The poems and the story they collectively tell have me wondering, do we ever really know another person, or even ourselves? Lamont鈥檚 poetry is a looking glass.
This book is available at your local bookstore or from the saskatchewan publishers group www.skbooks.com.
