Grounded in twentieth-century pop iconography, this book delivers all the passion, satire, and engaging wit that's become the author's trademark. Individually, these qualities mark every poem as socially and politically relevant. As a collection, the poems take on everything from Elvis and the Three Stooges to the current right wing political agenda. Relentless in its assessment of contemporary culture, the mordant irony, brutal honesty, and remarkable sensitivity of Priest's surreal prose poems, lush lyrics, confessions, psalms, slams, songs, sayings, and parables creates a poetic crucible in which the Canadian "melting-pot'' is purified of its hypocrisies and reclaimed, ultimately, in the joy of language.
Robert Priest is one of the few Canadian artists who has had a successful career as both a writer and a musician. He has published and recorded numerous works for children, including The Ruby Hat, A Terrible Case of the Stars, and Winterlong, and staged many successful plays for Toronto's renowned YPT. Author of five previous books of poetry, Priest won an Acorn Award for his ground-breaking collection The Mad Hand. A "people's poet" in every sense, Robert Priest has been a real political presence in recent years, writing both eloquent and impassioned articles on the effect of the Harris government on the average citizens of Toronto and Ontario. As a songwriter he has worked with the likes of Alannis Morisette, Alannah Myles, and Tom Cochrane, and his own album, Tongue'n Groove, was released in the summer of 1997 by EMI as the debut title for their Artisan label.
Poetry
112 pages, Trade Paper, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
Distribution Rights: US, CA, SAM & CAR
$12.95 (CAN $12.00)
9781550223132 (1550223135) Pub Date: March 1997
ECW Press