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Last Water Song
Shortlisted for the 2008 Acorn-Plantos Award for People's Poetry
Longlisted for the 2007 Victoria Butler Book Prize
Last Water Song , the first collection of new poetry from award-winning poet Patrick Lane since Go Leaving Strange (Harbour, 2004), is divided into two parts. The first part is a series of 16 long elegies on writer acquaintances who have died, including Adele Wiseman, Al Purdy, Earle Birney and Irving Layton. Prosey, relaxed and personal, these are some of the most moving poems Lane has written. The second section consists of 23 lyrics and narratives more typical of Lane's recent work, ranging from the eloquent "Teaching Poetry" to the evocative title poem with its hint of finality. Last Water Song is the work of a great Canadian poet, a collection to treasure.
Longlisted for the 2007 Victoria Butler Book Prize
Last Water Song , the first collection of new poetry from award-winning poet Patrick Lane since Go Leaving Strange (Harbour, 2004), is divided into two parts. The first part is a series of 16 long elegies on writer acquaintances who have died, including Adele Wiseman, Al Purdy, Earle Birney and Irving Layton. Prosey, relaxed and personal, these are some of the most moving poems Lane has written. The second section consists of 23 lyrics and narratives more typical of Lane's recent work, ranging from the eloquent "Teaching Poetry" to the evocative title poem with its hint of finality. Last Water Song is the work of a great Canadian poet, a collection to treasure.
88 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2007
10 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Lane
85 books39 followersPatrick Lane was born in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, on March 26, 1939. He has no formal education beyond high school in Vernon, B.C. From 1957 to 1968 with his young wife, Mary, he raised three children, Mark, Christopher, and Kathryn, and began working at a variety of jobs, from common labourer, truck driver, Cat skinner, chokerman, boxcar loader, Industrial First-Aid Man in the northern bush, to clerk at a number of sawmills in the Interior of British Columbia. He has been a salesman, office manager, and an Industrial Accountant. In 1968 his first wife divorced him. Much of his life after 1968 has been spent as an itinerant poet, wandering over three continents and many countries. He began writing with serious intent in 1960, practicing his craft late at night in small-town western Canada until he moved to Vancouver in early 1965 to work and to join the new generation of artists and writers who were coming of age in the early Sixties.
In 1966, with bill bissett and Seymour Mayne, he established Very Stone House, publishing the new post-war generation of poets. In 1968, he decided to devote his life exclusively to writing, travelling to South America where he lived for two years. On his return, he established a new relationship with his second wife, Carol, had two more children, Michael and Richard, and settled first in the Okanagan Valley in 1972 and then in 1974 on the west coast of Canada at Middle Point near the fishing village of Pender Harbour on The Sunshine Coast where he worked as a carpenter and building contractor. In 1978, he divorced and went to work as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg where he began his life with the poet, Lorna Crozier. Since then, he has been a resident writer at Concordia University in Montreal, The University of Alberta in Edmonton, the Saskatoon Public Library, and the University of Toronto. He taught English Literature at The University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon from 1986 to 1990, and Creative Writing at the University of Victoria, British Columbia from 1991 to 2004. He is presently retired from institutional teaching and leads private writing retreats as well as teaching at such schools as The Banff Writing Workshops, ‘Booming Ground’ at the University of British Columbia, The Victoria Writing School, and The Sage Hill Experience in Saskatchewan. He and his wife, Lorna Crozier, presently reside in a small community outside Victoria where he gardens and works at his craft.
His poetry, short stories, criticism, and non-fiction have won many prizes over the past forty-five years, including The Governor-General’s Award for “Poems: New & Selected” in 1979, The Canadian Authors Association Award for his “Selected Poems” in 1988, and, in 1987, a “Nellie” award (Canada) and The National Radio Award (USA) for the best public radio program for the script titled “Chile,” co-authored with Lorna Crozier. He has received major awards from The Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Saskatchewan Arts Board, The Manitoba Arts Board, The Ontario Arts Council, and the British Columbia Arts Board. He has received National Magazine awards for both his poetry and his fiction. He is the author of more than twenty books and he has been called by many writers and critics “the best poet of his generation.”
As a critic and commentator, he appears regularly on CBC, the national radio service in Canada, and on numerous other media outlets across Canada.
He has appeared at literary festivals around the world and has read and published his work in many countries including England, France, the Czech Republic, Italy, China, Japan, Chile, Colombia, the Netherlands, and Russia. His poetry and fiction appear in all major Canadian anthologies of English literature. A critical monograph of his life and writing titled "Patrick Lane,” by George Woodcock, was published by ECW Press.
In 1966, with bill bissett and Seymour Mayne, he established Very Stone House, publishing the new post-war generation of poets. In 1968, he decided to devote his life exclusively to writing, travelling to South America where he lived for two years. On his return, he established a new relationship with his second wife, Carol, had two more children, Michael and Richard, and settled first in the Okanagan Valley in 1972 and then in 1974 on the west coast of Canada at Middle Point near the fishing village of Pender Harbour on The Sunshine Coast where he worked as a carpenter and building contractor. In 1978, he divorced and went to work as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg where he began his life with the poet, Lorna Crozier. Since then, he has been a resident writer at Concordia University in Montreal, The University of Alberta in Edmonton, the Saskatoon Public Library, and the University of Toronto. He taught English Literature at The University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon from 1986 to 1990, and Creative Writing at the University of Victoria, British Columbia from 1991 to 2004. He is presently retired from institutional teaching and leads private writing retreats as well as teaching at such schools as The Banff Writing Workshops, ‘Booming Ground’ at the University of British Columbia, The Victoria Writing School, and The Sage Hill Experience in Saskatchewan. He and his wife, Lorna Crozier, presently reside in a small community outside Victoria where he gardens and works at his craft.
His poetry, short stories, criticism, and non-fiction have won many prizes over the past forty-five years, including The Governor-General’s Award for “Poems: New & Selected” in 1979, The Canadian Authors Association Award for his “Selected Poems” in 1988, and, in 1987, a “Nellie” award (Canada) and The National Radio Award (USA) for the best public radio program for the script titled “Chile,” co-authored with Lorna Crozier. He has received major awards from The Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council, The Saskatchewan Arts Board, The Manitoba Arts Board, The Ontario Arts Council, and the British Columbia Arts Board. He has received National Magazine awards for both his poetry and his fiction. He is the author of more than twenty books and he has been called by many writers and critics “the best poet of his generation.”
As a critic and commentator, he appears regularly on CBC, the national radio service in Canada, and on numerous other media outlets across Canada.
He has appeared at literary festivals around the world and has read and published his work in many countries including England, France, the Czech Republic, Italy, China, Japan, Chile, Colombia, the Netherlands, and Russia. His poetry and fiction appear in all major Canadian anthologies of English literature. A critical monograph of his life and writing titled "Patrick Lane,” by George Woodcock, was published by ECW Press.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 27, 2022
Decline, the way
things slope, lessen,
there, the angle of
the scree, things
held in place, a note,
a diminution, as of
the breath, what
builds from what
fails, fallen, what
bends under, what
gives way, diminished,
as the dying do,
the lessening, as of
last days, limbs
moving more
slowly, a decay,
without violence,
the mountain
revealing what
light I could
not see, abated,
abandoned to
this fallen stone
at rest, inclined,
unearthed.
* * *
Sometimes you look our over the great plains
and see a faint falling between what we think are mountains.
It is then you know you are living far away from the world.
As the abandoned hulk of a turtle you found once in a field
far from water. How you squatted on your bare heels and stared at the bulk
of that green dome. The body a thought inside that emptiness.
Or the night you stood by the redwood tree on the street outside your home
and stared through the burden of heavy needles at your wife
as she stared our of the light. How for one moment you were afraid.
Sometimes we live far away from the world,
bright sunlight, a heavy dark. Without thought, and waiting.
* * *
The spider
weaves her web
in the window
at dawn.
The night has been
cold and she moves
slowly, filament
to filament,
drawing from
herself a cage
that is
beauty to me
and to her
her only life.
It is morning
and she
has caught
nothing for weeks.
This is her last
web and it has
nothing to do
with hope
or love, only
that she must
sit in the centre
of her making
and know that
what will feed
her is to come
or not come,
the sun
on the flat flowers
and nothing
rising in the frost,
no sound among
the false blossoming
this cold, this
early spring.
* * *
Our lament makes the sand fleas dance.
Their tiny wings know a great secret.
things slope, lessen,
there, the angle of
the scree, things
held in place, a note,
a diminution, as of
the breath, what
builds from what
fails, fallen, what
bends under, what
gives way, diminished,
as the dying do,
the lessening, as of
last days, limbs
moving more
slowly, a decay,
without violence,
the mountain
revealing what
light I could
not see, abated,
abandoned to
this fallen stone
at rest, inclined,
unearthed.
- Forms, pg. 46
* * *
Sometimes you look our over the great plains
and see a faint falling between what we think are mountains.
It is then you know you are living far away from the world.
As the abandoned hulk of a turtle you found once in a field
far from water. How you squatted on your bare heels and stared at the bulk
of that green dome. The body a thought inside that emptiness.
Or the night you stood by the redwood tree on the street outside your home
and stared through the burden of heavy needles at your wife
as she stared our of the light. How for one moment you were afraid.
Sometimes we live far away from the world,
bright sunlight, a heavy dark. Without thought, and waiting.
- Lookout, pg. 56
* * *
The spider
weaves her web
in the window
at dawn.
The night has been
cold and she moves
slowly, filament
to filament,
drawing from
herself a cage
that is
beauty to me
and to her
her only life.
It is morning
and she
has caught
nothing for weeks.
This is her last
web and it has
nothing to do
with hope
or love, only
that she must
sit in the centre
of her making
and know that
what will feed
her is to come
or not come,
the sun
on the flat flowers
and nothing
rising in the frost,
no sound among
the false blossoming
this cold, this
early spring.
- Hope and Love, pg. 74-75
* * *
Our lament makes the sand fleas dance.
Their tiny wings know a great secret.
- Journeys and Returns, pg. 83
September 21, 2018
Beautiful images. Hard-scrabble poems rooted in nature, loss, and relationships. Unfamiliar with this Canadien poet and his friends, but the elegies that make up the book's first half were fascinating
I look forward to reading more.
I look forward to reading more.
June 8, 2010
This poetry book is very moving and inspiring. The first part of the book is comprised of elegies , in the form of letters to fellow writers who have passed away. I found his elegy to Pat Lowther to be particularly moving. The second half of the book is narrative and lyrical pieces. Patrick Lane is an extraordinary and insightful poet.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews