cart
details
ISBN-10: 1-55022-915-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-55022-915-8
5.5 x 8.5 in, 96pp, paperback
$16.95 CAD
April 2010
reviews
Price: $16.95
The two sections that comprise matt robinson’s fourth full-length volume of poetry, Against the Hard Angle, though disparate in terms of form – the first consisting primarily of a long poem; the other a collection of shorter lyrical pieces – nonetheless share a common concern with ideas of relationship and its examination. At their core, these are poems about where we stand in relation to the rest of our various worlds.
In the collection’s opening section, the eponymous (and 2009 Malahat Review Long Poem Award winning) “against the hard angle” steadily develops a grudging momentum, all the while searching for a way to articulate loss, in the end becoming a kind of meditative catalogue of relationship breakdown and divorce.
The second section takes as its immediate subject matter a different sort of relationship altogether. Having returned home after nearly a decade elsewhere, these are poems that reference robinson’s native Halifax, NS, more specifically and vividly than in his previous work; these are lines with “the near / magical pull of some deep-seeded magnet now spinning, / we’d guess, completely / and fully out of control – a crazed, elemental / ballet.”
Part extended love song to and for a city and part meditation on what a city can both say to and about us, Against the Hard Angle uses some of Halifax’s most and least famous places as jumping off points for a stop-and-start lyrical tour of eastern Canada’s largest urban centre, a sometimes fraught journey that leaves us “all tendon-tensed, / against impact, near white-knuckled to / breakage.”
---Headed to Halifax and want to see it through matt's eyes? Consult our custom Google map on your iPhone and savour a bit of matt's verse as you stand at the poem's inspiration. Can't get to Halifax? Use the map and Google Street view to have a look from anywhere in the world!
View Halifax in Verse in a larger map
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Read an excerpt from Against the Hard Angle.pdf | 49.47 KB |
Reading @ The Biscuit Eater
Reading @ The Biscuit Eater Cafe
Mahone Bay, NS
May 19th, 2010 @ 7:30pm
Halifax poet matt robinson will be reading from his NEWLY RELEASED 4th poetry collection, 'Against the Hard Angle' (ECW Press), as well as from his recently released limited edition chapbook (published by Greenboathouse Press in Fall 2009) at The Biscuit Eater Cafe & Bookseller in Mahone Bay, NS on WEDNESDAY, MAY 19th, 2010.
Things get underway at 7:30pm; admission is — of course — FREE. Copies of 'Against the Hard Angle', matt’s previous collections, some limited edition broadsides (produced by Gaspereau Press), and chapbook copies, will be available for purchase.
MORE INFORMATION on this event will be available soon at The Biscuit Eater website, HERE: www.biscuiteater.ca
Bookmark II, Halifax Nova Scotia
Hey Jennifer & ECW! Thanks for including us in the "literary tour" of Matt's great book. It is such a pleasure selling Matt's and all other ECW titles. Keep up the great work and we'll continue to fight the good fight for Canadian publishers and authors!
Mike
P.S. Cheers, Matt, for letting us know.
matt robinson to read from
matt robinson to read from 'Against the Hard Angle'
Halifax poet matt robinson will be reading from the manuscript of his FORTHCOMING poetry collection, Against the Hard Angle (ECW Press, out in April 2010), as well as from his recently released limited edition chapbook (published by Greenboathouse Press in Fall 2009) at the next installment of Dalhousie University’s CLCP Reading Series here in Halifax, NS on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18th, 2010.
Things get underway at 7:30pm; admission is — of course — FREE.
Copies of limited edition broadsides, chapbooks, etc. will be available for purchase.
The CLCP Reading Series takes place in the Reading Room on the 5th Floor of the Killam Library @ Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS.
Visit
Visit www.mattrobinsonpoet.wordpress.com for more information, poems, reviews, and more.