{"id":17671,"date":"2024-02-02T04:08:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T23:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/editorials\/rhiannon-ng-cheng-hin-fire-cider-rain-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-02-23T06:44:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T01:44:09","slug":"dennis-cooley-body-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/editorials\/dennis-cooley-body-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious Play: body works<\/em> by Dennis Cooley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cSerious art is born from serious play.\u201d This quote from Julia Cameron\u2019s The Artist\u2019s Way <\/em>epitomizes the poems in Dennis Cooley\u2019s latest book, body works<\/em>, in which he continues to write with a playfulness that has produced a rich oeuvre of poetry spanning the last five decades. Built from the machinery of the body\u2014its clicks, spasms, and grunts\u2014but also its soft tissue\u2014its loves, moods, and imaginings\u2014body works<\/em> is a robust volume of poetry that explores every nook and cranny of what it means to be a human. Cooley puts his finger on the pulse of mortality\u2014the drip-drip of time, the \u201cperturbations of the heart,\u201d and the aches and pains of aging joints\u2014but he also goes further in and further out, writing about the salt in our cells and a fishmonger selling squid in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dennis Cooley<\/strong>. body works<\/a>.<\/em> Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cooley\u2019s poems slip and skip around the page, both visually and acoustically. He makes a canvas of the page, splashing words with the gusto of an abstract painter, and inside the lines there\u2019s a delightful music. Each time I reread one of his poems, I catch another allusion, another sonic echo, another glint of joy. Here\u2019s the last stanza of \u201cyou could hear,\u201d a poem that exemplifies his playfulness and humour for both eye and ear: \u201cat every juncture \/ a tick of bones \/ a time every \/ morning to spell \/ crick, crackle, \/\/, & pop.\u201d Cooley\u2019s poems crackle and pop like that final playful reference to the popular breakfast cereal, which doubles as the visceral experience and the sounds an older person makes getting out of bed in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power of Cooley\u2019s \u201cserious play\u201d is that it allows him to uncover the deeper elements of human existence. He has what psychologists call flow<\/em>, that ability to move with the experience of writing almost unconsciously, without imposing his ego or control on the work. In \u201ctravelling light,\u201d where the husband earlier in the poem yanks a scarf through his sleeve, Cooley delivers these beautiful lines: \u201cas if time \/ did not go \/ all the way through\u2014 \/\/as if we were not \/ fireflies in a jar\u2014 \/ or the breath of gravity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooley\u2019s willingness to experiment is impressive. Examples include \u201cto speak in the place of,\u201d and in \u201cquite the you.\u201d In \u201cthe times are out of joint,\u201d he plays with some lines from the Lord\u2019s prayer: \u201cO cur said, \/spite our sad fat \/her who art \/ right is hollow \/ wed wld be they game \/ the whole creat \/ion the hole \/ crate & ka boo \/ dull\u2014failing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is just one way Cooley shows his virtuosity with experimentation; there isn\u2019t room to itemize them all here. Cooley is one of the few poets who can get away with clich\u00e9s. Consider the poem, \u201cbody parts,\u201d which has \u201cMike & Gabe & Zeke & me\u201d looking for body parts the way one might a wrecking yard: \u201cyeahyeahyeah    back there \/ look i ain\u2019t gonna wait on yuh hand & foot\u201d says Pete who\u2019s \u201cworkin\u2019 \/ for The Man, crams all this stuff \/ into a big bag of skin.\u201d This is a masterful poem that speaks powerfully of the human condition, in a collection of poems where \u201cwe done our best since, \/ but you got \/ to forgive me\u2014 \/\/ i can\u2019t help wondering \/ about all those hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Bios<\/h2>\n\n\n

Al Rempel<\/a><\/h3>\r\n

Al Rempel\u2019s latest book of poetry is Undiscovered Country<\/em>. He has two previous books and a few chapbooks, most recently, Behind the Bladed Green<\/em>. Rempel\u2019s poems have also appeared in various journals, anthologies, and videopoems. He can be found at alrempel.com [updated January 2023]<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSerious art is born from serious play.\u201d This quote from Julia Cameron\u2019s The Artist\u2019s Way epitomizes the poems in Dennis Cooley\u2019s latest book, body works, in which he continues to write with a playfulness that has produced a rich oeuvre of poetry spanning the last five decades. Built from the machinery of the body\u2014its clicks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"1382","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"16394,17822,16232,17441","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1382],"tags":[],"genre":[21],"publisher":[222],"issue":[],"poet-in-residence":[],"series":[3135],"topic":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17671"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17711,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17671\/revisions\/17711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publisher?post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"poet-in-residence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poet-in-residence?post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcpoetry.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=17671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}