The Possible Past

by Aislinn Hunter

Poet Aislinn Hunter asks, What if our writers and artists, scientists and revolutionaries had used other words or media, told other stories, developed alternative assumptions and conclusions? In The Possible Past, she finds tentative answers, expressed in startling, vivid imagery and dark musical rhythms. The book’s four sections — Errors, Inventions; The Progress of History; Public Records, Local Histories; and Field Notes — speak of its sweep as Hunter’s poetic meditation on memory moves magically from the local to the universal.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2005

About the author

Aislinn Hunter is the author of six books: two books of poetry, three books of fiction and a book of lyric essays. She is a contributing editor at Arc Magazine and has contributed to numerous anthologies. She has a BFA in The History of Art and in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria, an MFA from The University of British Columbia, an MSc in Writing and Cultural Politics from The University of Edinburgh and is currently finishing a PhD in English Literature at Edinburgh. She teaches Creative Writing part-time at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and lives in Vancouver with her husband Glenn and two Border collies.

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel bad for giving this book two stars, but I also didn't particularly enjoy it. Hunter is clearly a very intelligent person but her poetry just feels cold. Many of the poems in The Possible Past refer to historical events (the crucifixion, a solar eclipse, battles in different wars, the Cultural Revolution, the Holocaust), and she uses epigraphs and inserts lines from literary geniuses (Plath, Eliot, Li Po, Homer, Doyle, Borges). The result is that this collection feels too academic. I also think that she chose too many different sources of inspiration, which makes the book too incohesive for my liking. The major thread that runs through the poems is memory and its effects on constructing meaning, especially in reference to past events.

Despite this book being geared towards the ivory tower crowd—and I guess I can't blame her, this is poetry—her style attempts to be down-to-earth. Many of her poems have unpretentious imagery, but this didn't really work for me. In part because her obsession with epistemology betrays her attempts at simplicity, and in part because her imagery tended towards mere lists and read almost like prose at times.

The smell of fried eggs, the sound of the dogs padding softly
    down the trails,
the clang of a bicycle bell, the tentative flap of a bird's wings —
all of it temporal and extravagant. A tooth in the hand once rooted.
    Ruins
transformed into a city before turning back into ruins again.

(from "In a Village Near Coba," p.24)

or

The days collapse one into the other like folding chairs
and I am nowhere. Tied to the act of giving myself away.
Even iconography held loosely: books, dishtowel, light
blue dress; child, children, flowers in a crystal vase.

(from "Enter Anywhere, Reply to Anything," p. 25)

This is one of the first books of poetry that I ever bought, and it's very beautiful as an object...but it's not the kind of poetry that I like.

Poems that I liked:
"Barriers, in Six Parts," "Ernst Mach On Wonder," "Village Books."

=3/45 (6.7%) poems that I liked.

[Lyndi McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry beyond my understanding.

[Alex Tyckson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written focused on historical momentums and times.

"Everywhere broken skins on fists, collapsed buildings, the abstract of bodies that are no longer bodies, that become grey webbing if dreams" - reading from "The End of War"

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

the more poetry I read, the more I think that this is perhaps my favourite book of poetry 🤷‍♀️

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful