Wait Until Late Afternoon

by David Bateman, Hiromi Goto

David Bateman and Hiromi Gotos collaborative poem, Wait Until Late Afternoon, is a nostalgic/anti-nostalgic creative autobiographical conversation. Tracing their relationship to their fathers, their lives, and to each other through the transfiguring effects of alcohol, the narrative travels from glamorous nightclubs and the Jade Market in Taipei to Peterborough, Ontario and Nanton, Alberta. Through memory, mourning, geographies and sexualities, this poetic narrative is at once a memento mori and meditations upon wabi sabi.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

David Bateman is a spoken word poet and performance artist based in Toronto. His most recent performances, A Brief History of White Virgins or The Night Freddy Kissed Me, and What’s It Like? were presented in Vancouver, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto during the winter of 2009. He teaches drama, literature, and creative writing at a variety of Canadian post-secondary institutions.

Reviews

[Andy Quan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wait Until Late Afternoon is an odd book of poetry, and that's not a bad thing. I remember reading it and thinking that it wouldn't get the attention that it deserved because of it's challenges to the genre. David Bateman and Hiromi Goto take turns in a collaborative poem writing about... drinking... mainly, with a larger context of place, memory, sexuality and relationships to fathers. It's engaging, interesting and bold.