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Through the Garden: A Love Story
A Globe and Mail 100 Best Book
Finalist, Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Finalist, City of Victoria Butler Book Prize
A deeply affecting portrait of a long partnership and a clear-eyed account of the impact of a serious illness, writing as consolation, and the enduring significance of poetry from one of Canada's most celebrated voices.
When we ran off together in 1978, abandoning our marriages and leaving wreckage in our wake, I was a "promising writer," Patrick had just won the Governor General's Award. I was so happy for him, and I've continued to be every time an honour comes his way, but I knew if I didn't grow, if I remained merely someone who showed potential, we wouldn't last. I swore I wouldn't play the dutiful wife, cheerleader, and muse of the great male writer, and he didn't envision a partner like that. We aspired to flourish together and thrive in words and books and gardens.
When Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane met at a poetry workshop in 1976, they had no idea that they would go on to write more than forty books between them, balancing their careers with their devotion to each other, and to their beloved cats, for decades. Then, in January 2017, their life together changed unexpectedly when Patrick became seriously ill. Despite tests and the opinions of many specialists, doctors remained baffled. There was no diagnosis and no effective treatment plan. The illness devastated them both.
During this time, Lorna turned to her writing as a way of making sense of her grief and for consolation. She revisited her poems, tracing her own path as a poet along with the evolution of her relationship with Patrick. The result is an intimate and intensely moving memoir about the difficulties and joys of creating a life with someone and the risks and immense rewards of partnership. At once a spirited account of the past and a poignant reckoning with the present, it is, above all, an extraordinary and unforgettable love story.
Told with unflinching honesty and fierce tenderness, Through the Garden is a candid, clear-eyed portrait of a long partnership and an acknowledgement, a tribute, and a gift.
Finalist, Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Finalist, City of Victoria Butler Book Prize
A deeply affecting portrait of a long partnership and a clear-eyed account of the impact of a serious illness, writing as consolation, and the enduring significance of poetry from one of Canada's most celebrated voices.
When we ran off together in 1978, abandoning our marriages and leaving wreckage in our wake, I was a "promising writer," Patrick had just won the Governor General's Award. I was so happy for him, and I've continued to be every time an honour comes his way, but I knew if I didn't grow, if I remained merely someone who showed potential, we wouldn't last. I swore I wouldn't play the dutiful wife, cheerleader, and muse of the great male writer, and he didn't envision a partner like that. We aspired to flourish together and thrive in words and books and gardens.
When Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane met at a poetry workshop in 1976, they had no idea that they would go on to write more than forty books between them, balancing their careers with their devotion to each other, and to their beloved cats, for decades. Then, in January 2017, their life together changed unexpectedly when Patrick became seriously ill. Despite tests and the opinions of many specialists, doctors remained baffled. There was no diagnosis and no effective treatment plan. The illness devastated them both.
During this time, Lorna turned to her writing as a way of making sense of her grief and for consolation. She revisited her poems, tracing her own path as a poet along with the evolution of her relationship with Patrick. The result is an intimate and intensely moving memoir about the difficulties and joys of creating a life with someone and the risks and immense rewards of partnership. At once a spirited account of the past and a poignant reckoning with the present, it is, above all, an extraordinary and unforgettable love story.
Told with unflinching honesty and fierce tenderness, Through the Garden is a candid, clear-eyed portrait of a long partnership and an acknowledgement, a tribute, and a gift.
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First published September 8, 2020
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About the author
Lorna Crozier
56 books85 followersLorna Crozier was born in 1948 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. As a child growing up in a prairie community where the local heroes were hockey players and curlers, she “never once thought of being a writer.” After university, Lorna went on to teach high school English and work as a guidance counsellor. During these years, Lorna published her first poem in Grain magazine, a publication that turned her life toward writing. Her first collection Inside in the Sky was published in 1976. Since then, she has authored 14 books of poetry, including The Garden Going on Without Us, Angels of Flesh, Angels of Silence, Inventing the Hawk, winner of the 1992 Governor-General’s Award, Everything Arrives at the Light, Apocrypha of Light, What the Living Won’t Let Go, and most recently Whetstone. Whether Lorna is writing about angels, aging, or Louis Armstrong’s trout sandwich, she continues to engage readers and writers across Canada and the world with her grace, wisdom and wit. She is, as Margaret Laurence wrote, “a poet to be grateful for.”
Since the beginning of her writing career, Lorna has been known for her inspired teaching and mentoring of other poets. In 1980 Lorna was the writer-in-residence at the Cypress Hills Community College in Swift Current; in 1983, at the Regina Public Library; and in 1989 at the University of Toronto. She has held short-term residencies at the Universities of Toronto and Lethbridge and at Douglas College. Presently she lives near Victoria, where she teaches and serves as Chair in the Writing Department at the University.
Beyond making poems, Lorna has also edited two non-fiction collections – Desire in Seven Voices and Addiction: Notes from the Belly of the Beast. Together with her husband and fellow poet Patrick Lane, she edited the 1994 landmark collection Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets; in 2004, they co-edited Breathing Fire 2, once again introducing over thirty new writers to the Canadian literary world.
Her poems continue to be widely anthologized, appearing in 15 Canadian Poets X 3, 20th Century Poetry and Poetics, Poetry International and most recently in Open Field: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Poets, a collection designed for American readers.
Her reputation as a generous and inspiring artist extends from her passion for the craft of poetry to her teaching and through to her involvement in various social causes. In addition to leading poetry workshops across the globe, Lorna has given benefit readings for numerous organizations such as the SPCA, the BC Land Conservancy, the Victoria READ Society, and PEERS, a group committed to helping prostitutes get off the street. She has been a frequent guest on CBC radio where she once worked as a reviewer and arts show host. Wherever she reads she raises the profile and reputation of poetry.
Since the beginning of her writing career, Lorna has been known for her inspired teaching and mentoring of other poets. In 1980 Lorna was the writer-in-residence at the Cypress Hills Community College in Swift Current; in 1983, at the Regina Public Library; and in 1989 at the University of Toronto. She has held short-term residencies at the Universities of Toronto and Lethbridge and at Douglas College. Presently she lives near Victoria, where she teaches and serves as Chair in the Writing Department at the University.
Beyond making poems, Lorna has also edited two non-fiction collections – Desire in Seven Voices and Addiction: Notes from the Belly of the Beast. Together with her husband and fellow poet Patrick Lane, she edited the 1994 landmark collection Breathing Fire: Canada’s New Poets; in 2004, they co-edited Breathing Fire 2, once again introducing over thirty new writers to the Canadian literary world.
Her poems continue to be widely anthologized, appearing in 15 Canadian Poets X 3, 20th Century Poetry and Poetics, Poetry International and most recently in Open Field: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Poets, a collection designed for American readers.
Her reputation as a generous and inspiring artist extends from her passion for the craft of poetry to her teaching and through to her involvement in various social causes. In addition to leading poetry workshops across the globe, Lorna has given benefit readings for numerous organizations such as the SPCA, the BC Land Conservancy, the Victoria READ Society, and PEERS, a group committed to helping prostitutes get off the street. She has been a frequent guest on CBC radio where she once worked as a reviewer and arts show host. Wherever she reads she raises the profile and reputation of poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
April 4, 2021
If for any reason I forgot what a beautiful writer Lorna Crozier is, then this book has brought me back to my senses. I loved every word.
While loosely formatted as a memoir of the last few years of her husband’s life, it is really a reflection on the 40+ years they were together, the well-documented ups and downs, the passion they exuded for each other, the unquenchable love between them. The last years of Patrick Lane’s life were dominated by his debilitating illness and Lorna’s unwavering support for him.
There were a number of times I cried, but one of the most poignant sections was the chapter when she had to deal with the decline and death of their elderly cat Basho.
I’m not going to quote from this book. Where would I start? Just read it and savour the beauty of the writing. I’m going upstairs to pull another of her books off the shelf and do some savouring myself.
While loosely formatted as a memoir of the last few years of her husband’s life, it is really a reflection on the 40+ years they were together, the well-documented ups and downs, the passion they exuded for each other, the unquenchable love between them. The last years of Patrick Lane’s life were dominated by his debilitating illness and Lorna’s unwavering support for him.
There were a number of times I cried, but one of the most poignant sections was the chapter when she had to deal with the decline and death of their elderly cat Basho.
I’m not going to quote from this book. Where would I start? Just read it and savour the beauty of the writing. I’m going upstairs to pull another of her books off the shelf and do some savouring myself.
October 22, 2020
Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats) is a memoir that recounts the relationship between two prominent Canadian poets – Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane – from its unconventional beginning (both of them were married to other people when they met), to the life they built together, and to Patrick’s illness and passing. Their relationship was tumultuous at times, but their enduring love for each other allowed them to overcome all obstacles. Through the Garden is a tender, candid, and poetic love story.
October 17, 2021
This beautifully written memoir by a poet tells the story of the last years leading up to the death of the author's husband. Doesn't sound like a fun read? I didn't cry while reading it, but I certainly smiled and laughed out loud occasionally. Such wonderful words painting pictures - "From inside the shed, came the clucking of hens. Dozens of them walked the floor near the back, placing their feet with precision as if they knew ahead of time where each foot should fall, as if they woke up each morning with maps glued to the bottom of their toes."
February 2, 2021
This was a beautiful read from start to finish. Lorna authors the loves of her life with great affection, realism and insight. She perfectly paints the world as she has inhabited it and warmed my heart to every place and person she wrote on. The use of her and her husband Patrick’s poetry, along with excerpts from a few others, added something even deeper to the narrative, threaded in perfect harmony with the rest of her tapestry. I would encourage anyone in search of a wise, funny, soothing and heart aching read to treat yourself. Thank you Lorna ❤️ I almost want a cat now.
May 23, 2021
Beautifully written, and punctuated with poetry, this is truly a love story. From passionate beginnings, through to his death, I got a real sense of who they were, and their love for each other. And the cats? Interspersed between the accounts of hospital trips, and their love story, is the story. of the cats in their lives. Beautiful.
March 14, 2021
Oh boy did I cry.
What a beauty their lives were. The pain unimaginable but the love unmeasureable.
"I was stunned once again by the power of poetry, by what the poem knows that the writer doesn't./ The poem had taken me there, and I had followed. And it had found a special person to speak to. It had made me feel less alone."
What a beauty their lives were. The pain unimaginable but the love unmeasureable.
"I was stunned once again by the power of poetry, by what the poem knows that the writer doesn't./ The poem had taken me there, and I had followed. And it had found a special person to speak to. It had made me feel less alone."
April 15, 2021
A beautiful, heartbreaking memoir. Highly recommended. I love reading about Canadian poets and writers and their lives, so I may be biased :)
July 5, 2023
I had never heard of this author or her husband and don’t know where I even heard of this book!
A touching story, with some of her poems included, of her life with her husband. I wasn’t sure I would like it or even finish it when I started it but was happy I did. Very moving.
A touching story, with some of her poems included, of her life with her husband. I wasn’t sure I would like it or even finish it when I started it but was happy I did. Very moving.
November 20, 2020
Bumped this up to a four because I can’t stop thinking about it since I finished reading. Maybe it’ll hit five before long. Lorna Crozier’s journey through grief and reflection is really helping me approach my own loss. It’s inspiring.
March 6, 2021
Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane have been described as “one of Canada’s powerhouse literary couples.” Their words, as Crozier illustrates so beautifully in her new memoir, “are inextricably linked.”
Through the Garden begins and ends with excerpts from Lane’s exquisite memoir There Is a Season (published as The Stones Remember in the U.S.), written following his treatment at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center about twenty years ago.
Although Crozier and Lane, who died in March 2019, had met a couple of years before, they “ran off together in 1978,” leaving partners and Lane’s children in passion’s wake. “I’d say to anyone who’d listen that you shouldn’t settle for a life without it, that nothing else can take its place: not friendship, security, not mutual respect,” Crozier says. She agrees that you need “those as well” but “love without passion is tepid, and surely you want to burn.”
During their forty years together, thirty of them on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, “poetry and lust” made time and space for the smallness (Lane’s love of spiders) and the largeness (with Crozier’s prairie scope) of every day. Their lives, along with ferocious arguments and other menaces of the human kind, are reflected in the tentative beauty of the garden and the koi pond, always threatened by a heron or an otter. The fragile old cat, Basho, unseeing and unhearing, makes his way by scent. The poet elder, Lane, with his autoimmune disorder without a name, puts up, very slowly, one fence board at a time.
From the beginning of their relationship, Crozier knew she had to continue to grow as a writer and not to become cheerleader and muse to “the great male writer.” The pair “aspired to flourish together” and flourish they did, through teaching, residencies, and travelling the world, together and separately, always returning to their garden.
Her lived wisdom of intuition and experience guided Crozier through the writing she did during Lane’s illness, beginning, in the book, with February 2017. She “found words for the darkest and most resplendent of things in [their] forty years together.” Those words are woven into poems and reflections, through grief, through joy, each sentence tenderly and skillfully wrought.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review.
Through the Garden begins and ends with excerpts from Lane’s exquisite memoir There Is a Season (published as The Stones Remember in the U.S.), written following his treatment at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center about twenty years ago.
Although Crozier and Lane, who died in March 2019, had met a couple of years before, they “ran off together in 1978,” leaving partners and Lane’s children in passion’s wake. “I’d say to anyone who’d listen that you shouldn’t settle for a life without it, that nothing else can take its place: not friendship, security, not mutual respect,” Crozier says. She agrees that you need “those as well” but “love without passion is tepid, and surely you want to burn.”
During their forty years together, thirty of them on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, “poetry and lust” made time and space for the smallness (Lane’s love of spiders) and the largeness (with Crozier’s prairie scope) of every day. Their lives, along with ferocious arguments and other menaces of the human kind, are reflected in the tentative beauty of the garden and the koi pond, always threatened by a heron or an otter. The fragile old cat, Basho, unseeing and unhearing, makes his way by scent. The poet elder, Lane, with his autoimmune disorder without a name, puts up, very slowly, one fence board at a time.
From the beginning of their relationship, Crozier knew she had to continue to grow as a writer and not to become cheerleader and muse to “the great male writer.” The pair “aspired to flourish together” and flourish they did, through teaching, residencies, and travelling the world, together and separately, always returning to their garden.
Her lived wisdom of intuition and experience guided Crozier through the writing she did during Lane’s illness, beginning, in the book, with February 2017. She “found words for the darkest and most resplendent of things in [their] forty years together.” Those words are woven into poems and reflections, through grief, through joy, each sentence tenderly and skillfully wrought.
Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Mary Ann Moore for this review.
April 13, 2021
To lose the love of your life must be a heart-wrenching experience, and I can only marvel at Canadian poet Lorna Crozier and her ability to share her deep feelings associated with her recent loss. "Through the Garden" is more than a poetic memoir. It is a beautifully-written collage of diary entries, memories, stories and poetry associated with her deep love for Canadian poet Patrick Lane and their family of cats.
Emotionally, this is not an easy read, although Crozier manages to balance out the subject material so the reader doesn't feel overwhelmed. Still, many readers will be moved to tears.
If I may quote Crozier, "writing can be a consolation, that a poet needs to go to the dark places and open a crack for the feeblest of light, even if that glimmer doesn't slip into the heart for years after the words appear on the page. " (p. 81)
Crozier takes the reader into those dark places.
She continues, "Sometimes the light of your own poems never makes it way inside you, never gives you hope, but it's possible others will find it, that it will bring the some kind of sustenance, some modicum of comfort." (p. 81)
This is Crozier's gift; her ability to take words and to help readers to see the world (and even love) in a different light.
Emotionally, this is not an easy read, although Crozier manages to balance out the subject material so the reader doesn't feel overwhelmed. Still, many readers will be moved to tears.
If I may quote Crozier, "writing can be a consolation, that a poet needs to go to the dark places and open a crack for the feeblest of light, even if that glimmer doesn't slip into the heart for years after the words appear on the page. " (p. 81)
Crozier takes the reader into those dark places.
She continues, "Sometimes the light of your own poems never makes it way inside you, never gives you hope, but it's possible others will find it, that it will bring the some kind of sustenance, some modicum of comfort." (p. 81)
This is Crozier's gift; her ability to take words and to help readers to see the world (and even love) in a different light.
August 8, 2022
For personal reasons, it was hard to read this book. I grew up in the family of a "famous" Canadian poet, and all I saw in this book was the narcissism, navel gazing and selfishness that was a hallmark of the poetry literary community and the poet I knew. No regard for lives ruined by their behaviour, they felt their words were worth whatever is destroyed in their path (spoiler: they aren't). In the 70s, the rush for Canadians to feel like they have a literary scene created a self-congratulatory community of writers, funded by Canada Council grants that would have been better spent on building libraries or parks. You have probably never heard of the poet I know unless you are in the "inner circle" of academics and other poets who have joined the mutual admiration society. Yes, I am bitter, but between the lines of this book I saw all the unspoken damage done to others and excused with art.
Having said all that, the cats in this book were described beautifully and appreciated in a manner they deserved.
Having said all that, the cats in this book were described beautifully and appreciated in a manner they deserved.
January 25, 2022
Poetry isn’t something I read often; every once in awhile I’ll pick it up, but I really don’t look forward to it, and there are way too many novels on my shelf to ignore. But you may find it surprising to hear that my second favourite author (David Sedaris is my first) is the Canadian poet Lorna Crozier. Have I read every poem she’s ever written? No. But when I see her perform, or when I read something of hers it takes my breath away. The beauty of her words are unmatched, and she’s a Canadian treasure. She also has a colorful life; leaving her husband for the famous Canadian poet Patrick Lane, they were together for decades, right up until his death in 2019. Through the Garden, A Love Story with Cats is a book about their life together, but also about Lorna herself; parts of her childhood, her marriage before Patrick, the sometimes volatile but always passionate life she led with him, and of course, their cats.
Book Summary
Having met at a poetry workshop and running away from their respective marriages, then struggling through Patrick’s alcoholism, this couple is all too familiar with the ups and downs of relationships. But they are destined to be together, and they settle into a life that most of us can recognize; domestic contentment that swirls around beautiful gardens and a small group of cats that come in and out of their lives. Patrick is 10 years older than Lorna, so when he falls ill, it comes as no great shock, but they are both devastated when it slowly dawns on them that he won’t be recovering. This book is dotted with poetry, both Lorna’s and Patrick’s, and it jumps around in time. We learn of a particularly entertaining (though probably not at the time) instance when Lorna is faced with one of Patrick’s old lovers, and sparks literally fly. But their tumultuous beginnings are balanced by the mundane as they grow older. Being poets, the descriptions of their gardens and their routines around them are a calming force in both the story and their lives, so much so that it’s difficult to reconcile their wild beginnings with the charming photo of them at the end of this book – laughing together, content, on a park bench.
My Thoughts
A mixture of poetry within prose is my favourite kind of book – it allows time and space to sit with the poems, but the narrative still moves readers along on a traditional story arc, forming a comfortable push and pull that helps us set our own individual pace. As I mentioned above, Lorna’s poetry is my favourite, but we also get some of Patrick’s poetry, which she uses to illustrate a particular phase in their relationship, or simply give examples of his talent. The fact that they are both poets living together, working in the same niche industry is also dealt with in this book; the competition, Patrick’s earlier success, their working styles and how they used each other for help and for motivation. So many parts of their life seemed tumultuous, but I’m impressed that two poets (!) could work and support each other for so long. Art can be a way for two people two connect, but I can easily see it forcing people apart when in a long-term relationship too.
Perhaps it was the presence of the cats that kept them together? They play a large role in this book, each acting as their own character that Lorna and Patrick were clearly smitten by. Lorna details Patrick’s love of the natural world; his care with the gardens, his desire to free trees from strangling vines in a forest across the road from their house, his insistence that spiders be removed from the house and set free rather than smashed under shoe. a His love and patience were obvious with the cats, in particular one who took months to warm up, quick to lash out and claw at everything. Lorna is careful not to treat the cats as humans in her writing, instead, both poets act with a sort of reverence around them: happy to feed and pet them, but never placing unfair human expectations on them – she never once refers to them as their ‘fur babies’, thankfully. It would be great if we could eliminate that phrase from our society’s vocabulary, but I digress…
It’s the long stays in hospital that seem to drain them both, and Lorna’s realization that she is so reliant on Patrick is one of the most painful things to read about in the entire book. I’m lucky enough to be married to a very handy man, so this particular quote struck me:
“Though I can reach the pot light in the kitchen ceiling with the stepladder, my fingers aren’t strong enough to turn the burned-out bulb and pull it out. If I twist too hard will I break it and cut my hands? I can’t even change a fucking lightbulb.”
-Through the Garden, p. 122
Crozier’s writing can be blunt and self-deprecating, and of course painfully honest, which are all reasons why I love her, and this book. It’s a love letter to her life with Patrick, and it ends with her in bed, listening to the CBC announce Patrick’s death the night before. We don’t know how life after him will look, but we can hope it will contain future books, poems and stories that will continue to showcase her talents, and Patrick’s lasting influence.
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Book Summary
Having met at a poetry workshop and running away from their respective marriages, then struggling through Patrick’s alcoholism, this couple is all too familiar with the ups and downs of relationships. But they are destined to be together, and they settle into a life that most of us can recognize; domestic contentment that swirls around beautiful gardens and a small group of cats that come in and out of their lives. Patrick is 10 years older than Lorna, so when he falls ill, it comes as no great shock, but they are both devastated when it slowly dawns on them that he won’t be recovering. This book is dotted with poetry, both Lorna’s and Patrick’s, and it jumps around in time. We learn of a particularly entertaining (though probably not at the time) instance when Lorna is faced with one of Patrick’s old lovers, and sparks literally fly. But their tumultuous beginnings are balanced by the mundane as they grow older. Being poets, the descriptions of their gardens and their routines around them are a calming force in both the story and their lives, so much so that it’s difficult to reconcile their wild beginnings with the charming photo of them at the end of this book – laughing together, content, on a park bench.
My Thoughts
A mixture of poetry within prose is my favourite kind of book – it allows time and space to sit with the poems, but the narrative still moves readers along on a traditional story arc, forming a comfortable push and pull that helps us set our own individual pace. As I mentioned above, Lorna’s poetry is my favourite, but we also get some of Patrick’s poetry, which she uses to illustrate a particular phase in their relationship, or simply give examples of his talent. The fact that they are both poets living together, working in the same niche industry is also dealt with in this book; the competition, Patrick’s earlier success, their working styles and how they used each other for help and for motivation. So many parts of their life seemed tumultuous, but I’m impressed that two poets (!) could work and support each other for so long. Art can be a way for two people two connect, but I can easily see it forcing people apart when in a long-term relationship too.
Perhaps it was the presence of the cats that kept them together? They play a large role in this book, each acting as their own character that Lorna and Patrick were clearly smitten by. Lorna details Patrick’s love of the natural world; his care with the gardens, his desire to free trees from strangling vines in a forest across the road from their house, his insistence that spiders be removed from the house and set free rather than smashed under shoe. a His love and patience were obvious with the cats, in particular one who took months to warm up, quick to lash out and claw at everything. Lorna is careful not to treat the cats as humans in her writing, instead, both poets act with a sort of reverence around them: happy to feed and pet them, but never placing unfair human expectations on them – she never once refers to them as their ‘fur babies’, thankfully. It would be great if we could eliminate that phrase from our society’s vocabulary, but I digress…
It’s the long stays in hospital that seem to drain them both, and Lorna’s realization that she is so reliant on Patrick is one of the most painful things to read about in the entire book. I’m lucky enough to be married to a very handy man, so this particular quote struck me:
“Though I can reach the pot light in the kitchen ceiling with the stepladder, my fingers aren’t strong enough to turn the burned-out bulb and pull it out. If I twist too hard will I break it and cut my hands? I can’t even change a fucking lightbulb.”
-Through the Garden, p. 122
Crozier’s writing can be blunt and self-deprecating, and of course painfully honest, which are all reasons why I love her, and this book. It’s a love letter to her life with Patrick, and it ends with her in bed, listening to the CBC announce Patrick’s death the night before. We don’t know how life after him will look, but we can hope it will contain future books, poems and stories that will continue to showcase her talents, and Patrick’s lasting influence.
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April 8, 2021
Find this review and others on my blog
Through the Garden is a grief memoir written by one of Canada’s most renowned poets. Crozier’s husband is Patrick Lane, also one of Canada’s most renowned poets. This memoir flits between past and present, between poetry and prose, as Crozier deals with Lane’s serious illness and impending death.
Crozier’s memoir is less about grieving and death, and more of a humble celebration of life. She goes into length about her upbringing, her poetry, attending to animals, cultivating plants, taking care of the environment, and raising their cats. I felt so at peace after reading this memoir. I felt a sudden urge to just live in the middle of nowhere, take care of some animals, and tend to the environment. Phew, what a life.
Crozier tackles the codependency that inevitably develops from a life-long partnership. It made their relationship more rich, yes, but it also made Lane’s illness even harder for her to bear. It’s very touching whenever she tackles this theme in her memoir. She also vividly describes how a serious illness affects both the ill person and their loved ones. Crozier uses physical experiences as a means to articulate emotions, which I found very interesting. I reckon that’s how Crozier makes sense of things as a poet–the zooming-in on minute details to understand the big picture.
More on her writing, Crozier’s prose is amazing to read. She has a tight control over her words. She makes everything sound meditative and contemplative. Even the dramatic and dazzling parts are stripped of their drama and grandeur, and what readers are left with is a sense of quiet. Perhaps that’s just reality as well; things are mundane.
The only thing I didn’t really like about it, and I recognize this as a personal preference, is that there’s a lot of romanticization to the point that it got tiring for me to read the book at times. But that’s just me. I still recommend Crozier’s memoir!
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Through the Garden is a grief memoir written by one of Canada’s most renowned poets. Crozier’s husband is Patrick Lane, also one of Canada’s most renowned poets. This memoir flits between past and present, between poetry and prose, as Crozier deals with Lane’s serious illness and impending death.
Crozier’s memoir is less about grieving and death, and more of a humble celebration of life. She goes into length about her upbringing, her poetry, attending to animals, cultivating plants, taking care of the environment, and raising their cats. I felt so at peace after reading this memoir. I felt a sudden urge to just live in the middle of nowhere, take care of some animals, and tend to the environment. Phew, what a life.
Crozier tackles the codependency that inevitably develops from a life-long partnership. It made their relationship more rich, yes, but it also made Lane’s illness even harder for her to bear. It’s very touching whenever she tackles this theme in her memoir. She also vividly describes how a serious illness affects both the ill person and their loved ones. Crozier uses physical experiences as a means to articulate emotions, which I found very interesting. I reckon that’s how Crozier makes sense of things as a poet–the zooming-in on minute details to understand the big picture.
More on her writing, Crozier’s prose is amazing to read. She has a tight control over her words. She makes everything sound meditative and contemplative. Even the dramatic and dazzling parts are stripped of their drama and grandeur, and what readers are left with is a sense of quiet. Perhaps that’s just reality as well; things are mundane.
The only thing I didn’t really like about it, and I recognize this as a personal preference, is that there’s a lot of romanticization to the point that it got tiring for me to read the book at times. But that’s just me. I still recommend Crozier’s memoir!
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November 22, 2020
Lorna Crozier's poet's voice shines through every carefully chosen word of this memoir of her life with her late husband and fellow poet Patrick Lane. It's a heart breaking, uplifting, and unflinchingly honest examination of an often volatile relationship and its impact on the people involved and those who are sometimes collateral damage. Their lives play out against the various gardens they grow together and the varied cats that they raise. Crozier's luminous descriptions of their pond turtles' annual need to escape the confines of their domestic existence and Lane's patience with winning over a resistant, feral cat are exquisite and I marvel at her ability to wring such significance from everyday acts. There's no surprise ending to this book—Patrick Lane died in 2019—and Crozier's response is to write about her experience as a means of surviving the grief of watching his body break down and his death. We're fortunate the result of his pain in his wonderful book.
February 15, 2023
This was not a book I would normally read but I heard a review on CBC and thought I would try it. Lorna Crozier is a well known Canadian poet and this is her memoir that she wrote during the last 2 years of her husband, Patrick Lane, another Canadian poet's, life. As he fades away she recounts her tumultuous life with him but not in a chronological order. Her writing is beautiful, sprinkled with some of her poems. The theme of cats and garden also are featured predominately in this reminiscence. "Surely the quality of the silence, the knowing and the respect that it implies, is one of the things that makes people stay together. That and cats." This could have been a sad book but it was funny and tender for the most part.
December 8, 2020
With searing intimacy, this famous Canadian poet chronicles the last two years of her also famous Canadian poet husband’s illness and life.
Though I do love, and read, poetry, I have not followed them, or read their poetry, but some of my writer friends have been admirers, which is probably why I chose to read this book.
They were a passionate, risk-taking couple who definitely forged their own paths through life and had many fascinating ideas and experiences. It is a truly beautiful book, but still I found it hard to read, perhaps because I couldn’t quite handle Crozier’s looming widowhood shadowing every page.
Though I do love, and read, poetry, I have not followed them, or read their poetry, but some of my writer friends have been admirers, which is probably why I chose to read this book.
They were a passionate, risk-taking couple who definitely forged their own paths through life and had many fascinating ideas and experiences. It is a truly beautiful book, but still I found it hard to read, perhaps because I couldn’t quite handle Crozier’s looming widowhood shadowing every page.
November 3, 2020
This is such a beautiful tribute to her partner of 40 years, the poet Patrick Lane, and their lives together. Interspersed with her poems, it recalls the minutia of their daily intimacies from 1978 to his passing in 2019. It is also a tribute to their love of the garden she and Patrick built at their home, almost as a mirror of his own memoir of finding sobriety in that same place. Their two cats figure importantly in their lives and her most beloved cat is fading away with illness at the same time as Patrick.
January 13, 2021
“Writing can be consolation, that a poet needs to go to the dark places and open a crack for the feeblest of light, even if that glimmer doesn’t slip into the heart for years after the words appear on the page.” Writer, Lorna Crozier risked her safe and secure life as a teacher and her first marriage to become a poet towards the end of her twenties. What she found was her lifelong love for Patrick Lane, a shared adoration for the garden and a journey through grief when Patrick fell ill unexpectedly. This book is stunning and a must read for anyone journeying through loss.
February 19, 2024
Who doesn’t love a great love story? Now imagine there were also cats 😻
It has been on my shelf for years, I was put off by it because I am intimidated by poetry but this was more of a love story with a few poems mixed in. Beautifully written, tugs at the heartstrings.
I rated it as 4 stars because I’m afraid that some of the poems still went over my head and I don’t want to pretend that I totally understood everything. Maybe I’ll explore poetry more henceforth and reread it later and give it the 5 stars I’m sure it deserves.
It has been on my shelf for years, I was put off by it because I am intimidated by poetry but this was more of a love story with a few poems mixed in. Beautifully written, tugs at the heartstrings.
I rated it as 4 stars because I’m afraid that some of the poems still went over my head and I don’t want to pretend that I totally understood everything. Maybe I’ll explore poetry more henceforth and reread it later and give it the 5 stars I’m sure it deserves.
December 28, 2020
I loved this book. It makes me want to write... something. Anything. It is a beautiful love story; it's a poetry anthology; it's a memoir; it's a eulogy. Even if you know nothing about Lorna Crozier or Patrick Lane, it's worth reading. If you like cats, even a little tiny bit, read it. If you love someone, read it. If you are losing someone, wait a while. Then read it.
May 24, 2021
This is a beautiful book, the 40 year love story of Crozier’s relationship with the poet Patrick Lane. At times volatile and turbulent, their relationship was always a passionate one. Crozier’s language is exquisite and the poems she includes are lovely. If only I liked cats more, this might have become a favourite book of mine!
November 19, 2022
A beautiful and sad love story about a couple that shows you love exists beyond the early stages (when things are good) and in the late stages (when things aren’t as great). You support each other’s dreams, worries and emotional growth. You grow with each other. You sit by each other on the bad days. But you are consistent and you turn up each day with love and respect.
November 15, 2023
What a wonderful book, full of love and poetry and the day-to-day reality of living with someone for forty years. It is a beautifully written memoir. The sheer emotion it portrays brought tears to my eyes more than once. A great love story about two famous Canadian poets, with lots of cat humor thrown in. Irresistible!
March 10, 2021
A beautifully written memoir. Lorna Crozier is full of love for her husband Patrick Lane, and also their cats, especially Basho who dies during the book. Wonderfully crafted sentences which make the hardship and grief and good times come alive, interspersed with Crozier's poetry. A lovely read.
June 18, 2021
A heartfelt, well-written memoir by one of my favourite poets. Centred primarily around the time of her husband’s illness, Crozier skillfully weaves in context from her past to help us get a clear picture. Highly recommended.
March 10, 2022
Great memoir about cats, writing and gardening - three of my favourite things in life.
Crozier includes a lot of poems and tells the story of her long marriage to fellow poet Patrick Lane and his sad decline before his death.
Crozier includes a lot of poems and tells the story of her long marriage to fellow poet Patrick Lane and his sad decline before his death.
August 24, 2022
Lorna Crozier is a wonderful writer who has lived a wonderful life.
This book will likely resonate with cat lovers and silver-haired romantics.
I read the whole the book. I'm not sure it was for me — but I'm not the demographic.
But maybe you are. If so, go read it.
This book will likely resonate with cat lovers and silver-haired romantics.
I read the whole the book. I'm not sure it was for me — but I'm not the demographic.
But maybe you are. If so, go read it.
September 8, 2020
A tender testimony of the love between Canada's best poets. Lorna Crozier's poems reach through the telling of Patrick Lane's illness and death.
September 20, 2020
Poignant memoir/ story of two Canadian writers (and their cats).
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