A new book of poetry from Glen Sorestad, one of Canada's elder literary icons, is cause for celebration.
First Light, Last Light is the first book in six years by Sorestad, who was Saskatchewan's first poet laureate, serving two terms. As might be expected from a poet now in his 80s, the work in this volume is a mix of reflections on family, memories of youth and friends, and the not-always-pleasant aging process, all viewed with compassion, wisdom and, often, humour.
Sorestad is also a keen observer of the wildlife around him, from the birds who come to the feeder outside his window – damn those bully crows! – to the foxes and other wildlife he and his wife sometimes encounter on their morning walks.
First Light, Last Light is a book to read again and again, and treasure.
'Glen Sorestad first came to prominence back in the '70s writing prairie pub poems. In 2000, he proved himself the perfect person to become Canada's first provincial Poet Laureate, and since then he has continued crafting fine poems full of telling details and warm humanity. In First Light, Last Light, he writes with sensitivity about friends and family, the present and the past. He knows the human situation, where people often carom through relationships like discs in games of crokinole. He understands the power of nature as crows and catbirds, jays and juncos, waxwings and chickadees flutter through his poems. And who else could turn an annual medical check-up into a literary seminar covered by Medicare? Yes, Glen Sorestad is still writing poems that will delight readers." - Robert Currie, Saskatchewan's second poet laureate
"Glen Sorestad's poems range widely in time and space yet ground themselves in an attentive dedication to the local, to home's dailiness: a red fox on the back lawn, 'vocal tabernacle' of robins, a snowy owl that causes a traffic jam in an urban mall's entrance. Alongside loss and grief, lives wonder, joy. The snowy owl poem's final lines aptly encapsulate Sorestad's poetic vision: 'hope manifests itself/in unexpected places, in wee but wondrous ways.'" - Jeanette Lynes, Author of Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems
