The poems in this first collection offer convincing evidence for the old saying “two heads are better than one.” Twice the range of knowledge, passion, humour, and imagination results in a daring book with dazzling imagery and language that titillates the eye, ear, and mouth, and the dictionary-seeking hand.
MA|DE comprises Mark Laliberte and Jade Wallace, and the theme of duality appears frequently in ZZOO—life/afterlife; form/metamorphosis; humanity/divinity; and, of course, lovers, as in the poem “Python Skipping Rope.” In “Interdominion,” a wolf spider moves across the “sparkling architecture” of a frozen lake, pounces toward unidentified movement, but reaches only ice: “Viscous shape shimmers / below, floats nebulous. Subtended // tentacle mirrors spider’s electric touch, / tapping up gently at the frosted lid. / A refractive pause. Infinity between.”
Eclectic and often exotic sources inspire poems about living creatures from tardigrades to whales, wolf spiders to wolves, pets to people. A section titled “Taxidermies” includes an extensive set of notes—arresting, beautifully presented, and often essential to the full appreciation of a poem.
Laliberte is a graphic designer, and interspersed graphic images complement the text, often reinforcing the theme of duality. “Vortext,” a concrete poem about mysterious shipwrecks and other disappearances in The Michigan Triangle of Lake Michigan, brings its subject visually to life in the shape of a downward plunging triangle, with the text working its way around from the exterior to the interior. The text is cumbersome to read, but its images and narrative make it worthwhile. Who could resist the idea that “Lake Michigan is a clamorous collector, accumulating sailors beneath / its trenchant freshwaters; a lepidopterist pinning planes by their wings to the benthic zone.”
The poem forms are as varied as their inspirations. In the four orderly stanzas of “Ventral,” the sea slug becomes a creature of beauty: “this eternity below the ocean waves / is a bitter and frigid blue. Heavenly heads are / full of cold light, though blood swells their hearts / with auroras pink and gold.” “Arbeitslied” uses ragged unpredictable lineation with no capitals or punctuation to explore the disruptive impact of urban sound on the natural world: “when the airplanes / roar, the seasons cease to speak / and tree crickets struggle to recall / the canticles they used to dance to.” In “Sky Bird,” couplets tracing a plane trip become a meditation on the nature of existence:
We coasted past imperceptible longitudes
and borderlines, riding the edge of
the lower stratosphere. Between the rest
of our lives and where we are now—
this is the distance we always hoped for.
Writing as a duo must present challenges. But MA|DE achieves an invisible integration of two voices seemingly animated by a similar outward gaze and fascination with the often-odd specifics of our world. Imagine the joy of two such minds jostling! Kudos to Palimpsest for taking on the complexity of graphics, which contribute unique humour and drama to a rich text.
Bios
Jean Van Loon
Jean Van Loon is an Ottawa writer and a graduate of Carleton, Queen’s, Humber, and UBC. Her second poetry book, Nuclear Family, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in April 2022. Her first, Building on River (Cormorant, 2018), was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. Her story, “Stardust”, published in the Queen’s Quarterly, was included in Journey Prize Stories 19. Her stories, poems, and reviews have appeared in magazines from coast to coast. [updated in 2023]
Palimpsest Press
Palimpsest Press publishes poetry, literary fiction, and non-fiction titles that deal with poetics, cultural criticism, and literary biography. We look for poetry that displays technical mastery, precise language, and an authentic voice, and fiction that is rich in imagery, well crafted, and focused on character development. Our non-fiction titles are essays or memoirs written by poets, and books that examine Canadian poetry and the Canadian cultural landscape.