Tinderbox

by Dale Winslow

About the author Dale Winslow earned her B.Sc. in Wildlife Management from the University of Guelph and her B.Ed. from the University of Victoria. Dale has enjoyed life as an interpretive naturalist, wildlife and fisheries biologist, teacher, photographer, painter, editor and writer. She was co-editor of the Poetry Ring feature for A Review of General Semantics from 2008-2011. Her poetry has been published in Other Voices, ETC, General Semantics Bulletin, several anthologies, various e-zines, and she was co-editor and contributor to the poetry anthology Candy . Dale resides in Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Reviews "Dale Winslow's Tinderbox shows a sure, mature touch with words, and styles. Many of the poems herein blend symbolist style with contemporary a rap without the theatrical ranting and bling. And from time to time one can hear or glimpse in the background an e e cummings, a John Skelton. Entertaining and thought-provoking."
Eric McLuhan , author of Electric Language, The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake , and co-author with Marshall McLuhan of Laws of Media, and Media and Formal Cause . "Dale Winslow's Tinderbox will ignite you . Her sensuous poems explode in an orgiastic word feast which communicates a waking dream convergence between women, nature, and truth. Winslow's words hook you; you "reel them in real in them until you say O ." She conjures many varieties of " O " and "Oh" which encircle you within poetic sheer delight. Really!"
Marleen S. Barr , author of Genre Fission, Lost in Space, Feminist Fabulation , and the novel, Oy Pioneer! "These poems track truth as though it were some constantly morphing mythical creature leaping from one disguise to another until it is caught and stilled in its final form-wisdom. They are euphonious, sensual, full of surprises and highly engaging. They present the reader with ample opportunities to "commit pleasure crimes against the dying world.""
Robert Priest , poet, novelist, playwright, songwriter, performer "A late evening's snifter of words - surprisingly ancient and very modern at the same time, personal and cosmic, even the typography dances - that gets to the deepest centers of your brain. Winslow is a welcome, major talent."
Paul Levinson , author of The Plot to Save Socrates and Unburning Alexandria "No container of flammable miniatures but rather a smoldering verbal inferno, blazing with the heat & light of Dale Winslow's unflinching yet passionate gaze on all things great and small, Tinderbox addresses the most profound preoccupations of love & loss, the natural & unnatural worlds ("broken temples of man"), &, most exquisitely perhaps, death ("the endangered void"). It should be no surprise, then, that to enter the world of Tinderbox is to enter the world itself in all of its felt drama -- illuminated, lamented, & celebrated by the voice of this "white noise Orpheus," a voice both incendiary & generative, "curling/coiling/as a snake/on fire.""
Susan Lewis , poet and editor

202 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Dale Winslow is editor-in-chief and publisher at NeoPoiesis Press. She earned her B.Sc. in Wildlife Management from the University of Guelph and her B.Ed. from the University of Victoria. Dale has enjoyed life as an interpretive naturalist, wildlife and fisheries biologist, teacher, photographer, painter, editor and writer. She was co-editor of the Poetry Ring feature for ETC: A Review of General Semantics from 2008-2011. Her poetry has been published in Other Voices, ETC, General Semantics Bulletin, several anthologies, various e-zines, and she was co-editor and contributor to the poetry anthology Candy. Her first full-length poetry collection, Tinderbox, was released in 2013. Her second collection, Seeing The Experiment Changes It All, was released in 2021. Dale resides in Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Reviews

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful,intelligent and complex collection of poems by Dale Winslow. You will want to read this collection more than once. The content is as layered as Matryoshka nesting dolls, just as you read one there is something else that lies beneath, just as compelling yet delightfully different. These poems manage to explore ancient themes yet be completely of the moment and beyond. Through Dale's eyes we are able to see stories of illness and hope, love and redemption, the pragmatic and the esoteric. Those eyes leave no doubt they have seen the Earth's promise and self fulfilling prophecy. The main thought that ran through my mind as I read this book was that yes, poetry DOES matter.

[Si Philbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry book is a "must have", simple as that. Dale writes poetry that is full of thought but balanced with the truth of emotions that show an understanding of the human condition that few grasp.

[Neil McCrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dale Winslow is an indefatigueable editor, publisher and all around champion of writers of all stripes. Her great flaw is her tendency to put the work of others before her own. I'd feel more upset about this if it weren't for the fact that she has been the single greatest champion of my work.

The poems of Tinderbox are practically chameleonic, traces of everyone from Rimbaud to Bukowski, Roethke to Mary Oliver can be seen. But this is no mere homage, the poems here are more of an answer to and dialogue with these other poets. Dale Winslow is one of a kind.