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First
Governor General's Award-winning poet Arleen Paré combines the story of two first best friends with questions of the mystery of cosmic first cause.
The poems in First, Arleen Paré's seventh collection, search for a long-lost first friend. They conjure the subtle layers of meaning in that early friendship to riff on to a search for how we might possibly understand the primal First: the beginnings of the cosmos that contains our own particular lives, beginnings and longings.
This layered evocation of the past--of childhood in 1950s Dorval, "a green mesh of girls friendships and fights"--and the intensity of the desire to know, give First its haunting beauty. "[T]he word though old fashioned," Paré writes, "is whence . . . unconditioned origins" when "no worthy question is ever answered on the same plane that it was asked; how to frame the question not knowing the plane on which I must ask it."
"Arleen Paré's First is an intriguing Gertrude Stein as Nancy Drew mystery. Using prose poem narrative and an intense syntactic poetics, Paré discovers the cracks in memory as she documents the search for her first best friend. The cracks in this lyrical puzzle are heightened by a very active and assertive poetic language that compels as it decodes the investigation of childhood memory and desire. The writing in First demonstrates a powerful juxtaposition of the continuous present with the continuous past." --Fred Wah
"This brilliant collection revolves around firsts, especially a first friend, 'the impress of her never gone.' So too with these poems--tough, sweet and poignant, so surely rendered and musically rich--the impress of these poems never gone." --Lorna Crozier
The poems in First, Arleen Paré's seventh collection, search for a long-lost first friend. They conjure the subtle layers of meaning in that early friendship to riff on to a search for how we might possibly understand the primal First: the beginnings of the cosmos that contains our own particular lives, beginnings and longings.
This layered evocation of the past--of childhood in 1950s Dorval, "a green mesh of girls friendships and fights"--and the intensity of the desire to know, give First its haunting beauty. "[T]he word though old fashioned," Paré writes, "is whence . . . unconditioned origins" when "no worthy question is ever answered on the same plane that it was asked; how to frame the question not knowing the plane on which I must ask it."
"Arleen Paré's First is an intriguing Gertrude Stein as Nancy Drew mystery. Using prose poem narrative and an intense syntactic poetics, Paré discovers the cracks in memory as she documents the search for her first best friend. The cracks in this lyrical puzzle are heightened by a very active and assertive poetic language that compels as it decodes the investigation of childhood memory and desire. The writing in First demonstrates a powerful juxtaposition of the continuous present with the continuous past." --Fred Wah
"This brilliant collection revolves around firsts, especially a first friend, 'the impress of her never gone.' So too with these poems--tough, sweet and poignant, so surely rendered and musically rich--the impress of these poems never gone." --Lorna Crozier
- GenresPoetry
152 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2021
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Arleen Paré
14 books7 followersArleen Paré is a Canadian writer. She has published two collections of poetry and a novel to date.
Originally from Montreal, Quebec, Paré was educated in social work and adult education, and worked in social services in Vancouver, British Columbia for much of her professional career. She later left her social services job to study creative writing at the University of Victoria.
Her first book, Paper Trail, was published in 2007. A blend of poetry and prose about a businesswoman finding herself stifled by the weight of corporate bureaucracy, the book was a shortlisted nominee for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2008, and won that year's City of Victoria Butler Book Award. She followed up with the novel Leaving Now in 2012.
Her 2014 poetry collection Lake of Two Mountains won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry. [wikipedia]
Originally from Montreal, Quebec, Paré was educated in social work and adult education, and worked in social services in Vancouver, British Columbia for much of her professional career. She later left her social services job to study creative writing at the University of Victoria.
Her first book, Paper Trail, was published in 2007. A blend of poetry and prose about a businesswoman finding herself stifled by the weight of corporate bureaucracy, the book was a shortlisted nominee for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize in 2008, and won that year's City of Victoria Butler Book Award. She followed up with the novel Leaving Now in 2012.
Her 2014 poetry collection Lake of Two Mountains won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry. [wikipedia]
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 16, 2023
I tried, I tried very hard, I tried 77% hard, but I cannot try any longer. There's nothing wrong with this, probably, if reading poetry comes naturally to you, but I just kept praying for more of the sections with sentences and less of everything else and I just do not care enough about the arc of this to keep the litany up for another thirty pages.
September 25, 2021
A masterful wordsmith, Arleen Pare explores the commonplace; 'language is a ribbon/ is braided meteors and shining tails/ imploding stars.' She transcends the ordinary and pays homage to 'the radiance of miraculous dreams' finding her first best friend again, living just ten blocks away,
after growing up together halfway across the country. This tribute to a first best friend is explored sequentially in seven segments: Before the First, Before Time; A Brief History of Childhood; Girls: The Green Time; Cosmos; Then let me Ask; Black Holes; and The Curve of Time. She offers a sensitive introspective in Daisy Chain 1 and 2, with a mother and father's love. 'Pass me a full slice of life' which is what this collection does. Each poem a tempting bite.
after growing up together halfway across the country. This tribute to a first best friend is explored sequentially in seven segments: Before the First, Before Time; A Brief History of Childhood; Girls: The Green Time; Cosmos; Then let me Ask; Black Holes; and The Curve of Time. She offers a sensitive introspective in Daisy Chain 1 and 2, with a mother and father's love. 'Pass me a full slice of life' which is what this collection does. Each poem a tempting bite.
December 26, 2021
Just a stunningly beautiful book of poetry. I’m glad I savoured it a few poems at a time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews