num_pages: 96
description: [McKay's] exuberantly musical and shrewd poems are ecological in the fullest sense of the they seek to elucidate our relationships with our fragile dwelling places both on the earth and in our own skins. -- New York Times Book ReviewAn extraordinary collection of poems from Griffin Poetry Prize winner Don McKay. Old Whats the difference between a lurch and a dance step? I dont know. I didnt think so. Lets sit down. These poems are what happens when you stay out on the dance floor instead dancing the staggers. The full moon rises from the ocean and you lurch with astonishment that we live on a rocky sphere whirling in space. Or the bird in your handa pipit or a storm petrelconveys the exquisite frailty of existence. And theres the complex of lurches as we contemplate our complicity in the sixth mass extinction. Throughout Lurch  language dances its ardent incompetence as a translator of the profane wonders of the wilderness whether manifest as Balsam Fir Catbirds the extinct Eskimo Curlew or the ever-present Cosmic Microwave Background. What is the difference between a love song and an elegy? We live between eroding raindrops and accelerating clocks. The piano lifts its lid to show its wire-and-hammer heart. 
language: English
title: Lurch
publisher: McClelland & Stewart