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Alchemy of Happiness
In her new volume of verse, Bowering continues her rigorous, ambitious path and delivers poems that blend a variety of personalities, times, and places that add up to an overall substance she sees as happiness. Like an alchemist of old, she transmutes experiences, perceptions, and perspectives into something richer and rarer despite the passage of years and the loss and death they have brought.
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The Alchemy of Happiness, shows the author to be masterfully at ease with the alchemy of language. Bowering pares her poems, using an economy of words to great success, "the hook is deep / my heart never so whole / as when lurching on a leash" (43). "Love is / a new dress / thigh-high boots" (42). The themes of death and love are prominent: "No vision is necessary, / death is a bridge: // mirror its spaciousness / in the dark wood" (22). But through the mirror, Bowering also sees her own role as communicator of stories: "You came into this world for one purpose, / and that was to learn / the story of all beings" (17).
Prairie Fire
*
The Alchemy of Happiness, shows the author to be masterfully at ease with the alchemy of language. Bowering pares her poems, using an economy of words to great success, "the hook is deep / my heart never so whole / as when lurching on a leash" (43). "Love is / a new dress / thigh-high boots" (42). The themes of death and love are prominent: "No vision is necessary, / death is a bridge: // mirror its spaciousness / in the dark wood" (22). But through the mirror, Bowering also sees her own role as communicator of stories: "You came into this world for one purpose, / and that was to learn / the story of all beings" (17).
Prairie Fire
136 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Marilyn Bowering
43 books15 followersMARILYN BOWERING’s first novel, To All Appearances A Lady, was a New York Times Notable Book. Her second novel, Visible Worlds, was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize, nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Prize, and awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Visible Worlds was praised by The Independent as “a tour de force … a wonderful piece of storytelling” and by The New York Times Book Review as “a vast, sprawling feast of a book.” Her novel What it Takes to Be Human was praised by The Globe and Mail as “a great novel… [Bowering] does not seek moments to be brilliant: those moments just arrive.” A new novel, The Unfinished World, was published in late 2025. Bill Gaston, author of Juliet Was a Surprise and The World, called The Unfinished World "a beautiful, insightful novel that performs a remarkable trick with history, time, and memory, a brilliant interweaving that is both teasingly cerebral as well as richly heartfelt.”
More Richly in Earth, part memoir and part literary investigation of a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard, was published by McGill Queen’s Press in 2024 and was long-listed for the Saltire Prize. The Scottish Gaelic writer Maoilios Caimbeul called it "a major work."
Marilyn Bowering is also an award-winning poet and librettist. Jan Zwicky says of Bowering, Her brilliant imagistic gift is always offered in service to the mystery of insight, the other invisible worlds gathered close in this one. Bowering’s poetry includes Human Bodies: Collected Poems 1987-1999, Green, an interplay of form and conversations and Soul Mouth, a book of story and memoir poems. With Threshold (photographs by Xan Shian), Marilyn Bowering extends the conversation to an encounter with a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard. Of What Is Long Past Occurs in Full Light (illustrations by Ken Laidlaw), Jan Zwicky comments, Despite her unflinching acknowledgement of the horrors humans visit on themselves and others, her vision is grounded in the subtle integrity of love. A new book of poetry, Frayed Linens, will be published in November 2025.
Marilyn Bowering has received many poetry prizes including the Ruth and David Lampe Award, the Gwen MacEwen Poetry prize, the Pat Lowther Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, several National Magazine Awards, two nominations for the Governor General’s award, and shortlisting for the Prix Italia and the Sony Award. An opera, Marilyn Forever (composer Gavin Bryars), has received production premieres (2013-2022) in Victoria, BC; Long Beach, Ca.; Adelaide, Australia; Vienna, Austria; Oxford and Glasgow, UK; and Hagen and Saarbrücken, Germany. Bowering’s work has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Finnish, German, Romanian, Russian, and Punjabi.
Marilyn Bowering was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Victoria, BC. She has lived in various parts of Canada and in Greece, Scotland and Spain and now makes her home on Vancouver Island.
More Richly in Earth, part memoir and part literary investigation of a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard, was published by McGill Queen’s Press in 2024 and was long-listed for the Saltire Prize. The Scottish Gaelic writer Maoilios Caimbeul called it "a major work."
Marilyn Bowering is also an award-winning poet and librettist. Jan Zwicky says of Bowering, Her brilliant imagistic gift is always offered in service to the mystery of insight, the other invisible worlds gathered close in this one. Bowering’s poetry includes Human Bodies: Collected Poems 1987-1999, Green, an interplay of form and conversations and Soul Mouth, a book of story and memoir poems. With Threshold (photographs by Xan Shian), Marilyn Bowering extends the conversation to an encounter with a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard. Of What Is Long Past Occurs in Full Light (illustrations by Ken Laidlaw), Jan Zwicky comments, Despite her unflinching acknowledgement of the horrors humans visit on themselves and others, her vision is grounded in the subtle integrity of love. A new book of poetry, Frayed Linens, will be published in November 2025.
Marilyn Bowering has received many poetry prizes including the Ruth and David Lampe Award, the Gwen MacEwen Poetry prize, the Pat Lowther Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, several National Magazine Awards, two nominations for the Governor General’s award, and shortlisting for the Prix Italia and the Sony Award. An opera, Marilyn Forever (composer Gavin Bryars), has received production premieres (2013-2022) in Victoria, BC; Long Beach, Ca.; Adelaide, Australia; Vienna, Austria; Oxford and Glasgow, UK; and Hagen and Saarbrücken, Germany. Bowering’s work has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Finnish, German, Romanian, Russian, and Punjabi.
Marilyn Bowering was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Victoria, BC. She has lived in various parts of Canada and in Greece, Scotland and Spain and now makes her home on Vancouver Island.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 3, 2015
I want very much to enjoy Marilyn Bowering's poetry more than I do.
When I picked up this collection, it seemed very much cut from the same thread of another book of hers I've read, 'Green'. The voice was identical, very captured in the austere, sort-of-meandering meditation of a woman fond of allusions and dalliances in language. The problem I had with Marilyn's usual construction and delivery is that every poem that uses it seems almost slightly out of focus—like the author is playing a game at describing things without explaining exactly what they are. Why say a ball is round and red when you can allude to it? Of course, the interplay of metaphor, metonymy, and specificity are the bones of poetry, but when the skeleton takes form in a confusing spiral that refuses to give handholds to the reader, I get a sour taste in my mouth.
I will say outright: the section entitled "Glen Lochay Diary" was phenomenal. The use of plain language, simple reference, and just enough colour in the description made reading it feel like a slightly less candid diary entry, but real enough to keep me interested the whole way through. If the entire collection was as strong as this section, my rating would be four, or maybe even five stars.
As is, however, when I got into "Calendar", I felt my interest waning again. The language once more became vague and shimmery, almost dreamlike in an unpleasant way—which may be conscious, given the continual references to dreams. In the same fashion that Joyce claimed 'Finnegans Wake' was incomprehensible to mimic the act of dreaming, I can appreciate the aim, but still be disenfranchised by the execution.
Maybe part of my problem with Marilyn's poetry arises from the persona it all seems tied to—the only voice I can imagine reading these poems is that of a slightly put on 'artiste', perhaps in the same affected fashion of Sylvia Plath's reading. And I have a notable distaste for Sylvia Plath.
That's not to say there aren't good poems within—maybe just that they're not to my preference. As is, I'd be happy to give this book 3.5 stars for the Diary section alone—as is, however, Goodreads slumps it to 3, which is probably closer to my instinctual reaction. I can see poetry upon poetry in this collection, but the poetry I enjoy most breaks the mould in some way, and makes itself accessible to the reader, which I just didn't feel came across in this collection.
When I picked up this collection, it seemed very much cut from the same thread of another book of hers I've read, 'Green'. The voice was identical, very captured in the austere, sort-of-meandering meditation of a woman fond of allusions and dalliances in language. The problem I had with Marilyn's usual construction and delivery is that every poem that uses it seems almost slightly out of focus—like the author is playing a game at describing things without explaining exactly what they are. Why say a ball is round and red when you can allude to it? Of course, the interplay of metaphor, metonymy, and specificity are the bones of poetry, but when the skeleton takes form in a confusing spiral that refuses to give handholds to the reader, I get a sour taste in my mouth.
I will say outright: the section entitled "Glen Lochay Diary" was phenomenal. The use of plain language, simple reference, and just enough colour in the description made reading it feel like a slightly less candid diary entry, but real enough to keep me interested the whole way through. If the entire collection was as strong as this section, my rating would be four, or maybe even five stars.
As is, however, when I got into "Calendar", I felt my interest waning again. The language once more became vague and shimmery, almost dreamlike in an unpleasant way—which may be conscious, given the continual references to dreams. In the same fashion that Joyce claimed 'Finnegans Wake' was incomprehensible to mimic the act of dreaming, I can appreciate the aim, but still be disenfranchised by the execution.
Maybe part of my problem with Marilyn's poetry arises from the persona it all seems tied to—the only voice I can imagine reading these poems is that of a slightly put on 'artiste', perhaps in the same affected fashion of Sylvia Plath's reading. And I have a notable distaste for Sylvia Plath.
That's not to say there aren't good poems within—maybe just that they're not to my preference. As is, I'd be happy to give this book 3.5 stars for the Diary section alone—as is, however, Goodreads slumps it to 3, which is probably closer to my instinctual reaction. I can see poetry upon poetry in this collection, but the poetry I enjoy most breaks the mould in some way, and makes itself accessible to the reader, which I just didn't feel came across in this collection.
Displaying 1 of 1 review