One Muddy Hand: Selected Poems

by Earle Birney

Earle Birney (1904-1995), the father of modern Canadian poetry, was one of Canada's finest writers and the author of "David," arguably the most popular Canadian poem of all time. One Muddy Selected Poems features Birney's best work, spanning his entire writing career from 1926 to 1987.

Born in Calgary, Birney grew up in different parts of Alberta before his family settled in Banff. In 1922 he enrolled at the University of British Columbia, where he received his BA in English. He earned his MA and PhD from the University of Toronto and also studied at Berkeley and the University of London. Birney's first and second volumes of poetry, David and Other Poems, and Now is Time, both won the Governor General's Award. In addition to publishing over twenty collections of poems over his lifetime, he published two novels, including Turvey--which won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1949--several plays, three books of criticism and a memoir. Birney was a noted teacher of creative writing and literature, known for inspiring a generation of students to become writers, educators and scholars. He had a distinguished career at UBC, where he founded Canada's first creative writing department in 1963, and he was University of Toronto's first writer-in-residence in 1965.

Using Birney's Ghost in the Selected Poems as a guide, editor Sam Solecki chose the remainder of the poems. Here are Birney's most-loved poems, such as "David," "Bushed," "A walk in Kyoto," "The bear on the Delhi road," "El Espolio" and "For Wailan," a sequence of love poems that are among the best in the Canadian canon. The only Birney book of poems currently available, One Muddy Hand brings a canonical author's poetry back into print and will be an important addition to bookshelves everywhere.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Earle Alfred Birney was a distinguished Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honor, for his poetry.

Reviews

[Clare Bear]

One of my favourite poem's is Canadian poet Earle Birney's "i think you are a whole city." I happened upon this beauty in an anthology. It's just gorgeous. It makes me think of my sister, Rachel. Here it is..


i think you are a whole city


and yesterday when i first touched
you i started moving
thru one of your suburbs
where all the gardens are fresh
with faces of you
flowering

some girls are only houses
maybe a strip
development
woman you are miles
of boulevards with supple trees
unpruned and full of winding
honesties

so give me time i want
i want to know
all your squares and cloverleafs
im steering now by a constellation
winking over this nights rim
from some great beachside of you
with highrises and a spotlit
beaux arts

i can hear your beat-
ing center will i
will i make it
are there maps of you
i keep circling
imagining
parks fountains your stores

back in my single
bed i wander your stranger
dreaming i am
your citizen

(c) Earle Briney

[Andrew Sare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently after writing David, Birney was asked at almost every reading or class he taught for the rest of his life whether he had actually pushed a climbing partner off a cliff.

While David's fantasy and flaws make it one of the great Canadian poems, the man is more than one poem and deserves to be read.

here's a favorite that seems relevant:

"Billboards Build Freedom of Choice

Yegtit?
Look See.
AMERICA BUILDS BILLBOARDS
so billboards kin bill freedoma choice
between-yeah between billbores no
WAIT
its yedoan hafta chose no more between
say like trees and billbores lessa course
wenna buncha trees is flattint out inta
BILLB-
yeah yegotit
youkin pick between well
hey! see! like dat!
ALL VYNIL GET WELL DOLLS $6.98
or-watch wasdat comin up?
PREPAID CAT?
PREPAID CATASTOPHE COVERAGE
yeah hell youkin have damnear anythin
FREE 48 INCH TV IN EVERY ROOM
see! or watchit!
OUR PIES TASTE LIKE MOTHERS
yeah but look bud no chickenin out
because billbores build
AM-
yeah an AMERICA BUILDS MORE
buildbores to build more-
sure yougotta! yugotta have
FREEDOM TO
hey!.." (and on and on it goes)

- Earle Birney

Wish I could find a reading of this. It doesn't surprise me that he was a writer for Fraggle Rock.