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The Quiet in Me: Poems
A posthumous collection of poetry from Patrick Lane, compiled and edited by Lorna Crozier.
In this final collection, Patrick Lane cultivates the quiet of living in a body amongst so many other bodies—the trout in the lake, geese arriving with the wind, a raccoon fishing in a river—ultimately revealing a tangled web of life and a speaker who sees both beauty and pain brimming around him.
Together, the poems in The Quiet in Me are a clear-eyed and sharp meditation on existing in a world pulsing between life and death, death and life. When the body is “a museum for what’s gone” and a heart is “the sound of the wind seething,” there is no answer but to learn the language of quiet; the language of an earth unfolding itself perpetually in the dawn: “the song of the falling water and wild birds.”
With incredible poetic precision, this collection is an offering—to come back to yourself and to lose yourself in sight, sound and sense. Playing in paradoxes—“empty marrow bones with their strings of red ants”—these poems cultivate dualisms: intimacy and realism, vulnerability and the roughness of youth, a scar that is a father’s teaching, a blade that is a sigh.
From one of Canada’s most lyric writers comes a book steeped in the wisdom of the natural world. Told by an eye that never ceases to observe and a heart that is willing to make itself known—to invite others into its warmth and wilderness—this collection transposes leaf to leaf, stone to stone, reminding us that water will always return to water and so will we.
In this final collection, Patrick Lane cultivates the quiet of living in a body amongst so many other bodies—the trout in the lake, geese arriving with the wind, a raccoon fishing in a river—ultimately revealing a tangled web of life and a speaker who sees both beauty and pain brimming around him.
Together, the poems in The Quiet in Me are a clear-eyed and sharp meditation on existing in a world pulsing between life and death, death and life. When the body is “a museum for what’s gone” and a heart is “the sound of the wind seething,” there is no answer but to learn the language of quiet; the language of an earth unfolding itself perpetually in the dawn: “the song of the falling water and wild birds.”
With incredible poetic precision, this collection is an offering—to come back to yourself and to lose yourself in sight, sound and sense. Playing in paradoxes—“empty marrow bones with their strings of red ants”—these poems cultivate dualisms: intimacy and realism, vulnerability and the roughness of youth, a scar that is a father’s teaching, a blade that is a sigh.
From one of Canada’s most lyric writers comes a book steeped in the wisdom of the natural world. Told by an eye that never ceases to observe and a heart that is willing to make itself known—to invite others into its warmth and wilderness—this collection transposes leaf to leaf, stone to stone, reminding us that water will always return to water and so will we.
57 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 2, 2022
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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 - 11 of 11 reviews
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December 30, 2022i have no idea how to rate poetry
August 8, 2022
"The Quiet in Me" is exactly what a lifetime of writing builds to: mastery. The poems here made me stop to catch my breath and I intentionally took a break at the 20-page mark, as I said, "I need to save this for later."
The collection, like much of Patrick Lane's work, resonates humility and respect, a particular and powerful love of nature.
Thumbs up to Lorna Crozier for curating this collection with tact, taste, and appreciation for her partner's work.
As a poet myself, I have to say that Lane's writing has had an enormous influence on me, in particular in its celebration of the ordinary: the ineffable beauty of light, life, and voice. Reading his final collection in his home province was also a gift, and I can't say enough how grateful I am to have read and studied him.
Rest in peace.
The collection, like much of Patrick Lane's work, resonates humility and respect, a particular and powerful love of nature.
Thumbs up to Lorna Crozier for curating this collection with tact, taste, and appreciation for her partner's work.
As a poet myself, I have to say that Lane's writing has had an enormous influence on me, in particular in its celebration of the ordinary: the ineffable beauty of light, life, and voice. Reading his final collection in his home province was also a gift, and I can't say enough how grateful I am to have read and studied him.
Rest in peace.
July 25, 2022
"The Quiet in Me is in some ways a sweet and lyrical goodbye. It draws to an end the life work of one of our country's finest writers." from the introduction, Last Words, by Lorna Crozier. There is a quiet sadness to this last collection, certainly with Patrick Lane's passing but also the images: the lone goose, the little whispers of snow, the prayers the leaves make, a museum for what is gone, waiting out the rain... Many of these are shorter poems, meant to melt like spring run off, sharp and clear.
March 30, 2022
Great poetry! Excited to read his backlist now!
Thank you to ZG Stories and Harbour Publishing for my advance review copy!
Thank you to ZG Stories and Harbour Publishing for my advance review copy!
November 20, 2023
In 2019, about a month before he died following a long debilitating illness, Lane presented his partner Lorna Crozier with a folder of poems he'd completed. It was her task to put together The Quiet in Me after Lane's death. There is something elegaic in these poems, focusing on
the world beyond himself, its flora and fauna, as Lane so fervently did throughout his life. As the title suggests, there is a stillness, a calm, a spiritual acceptance in this book, which is not without delight, as in "A Christmas Poem." A long life affords a poet the opportunity to make powerful associations, as he does in the poem "Cobalt Blue" which starts with the poet watching elephant seals in the Bay of Otters and lands in a memory of the blue glass in the windows of Chartres cathedral. Lane speaks plainly here, often in the first person: "Go on, I hear my father say, my mother too, / and though they nest in sunken graves / I hear them still. . ." There is no salvation, but perhaps redemption in poetry, Lane once wrote. This book proves it.
the world beyond himself, its flora and fauna, as Lane so fervently did throughout his life. As the title suggests, there is a stillness, a calm, a spiritual acceptance in this book, which is not without delight, as in "A Christmas Poem." A long life affords a poet the opportunity to make powerful associations, as he does in the poem "Cobalt Blue" which starts with the poet watching elephant seals in the Bay of Otters and lands in a memory of the blue glass in the windows of Chartres cathedral. Lane speaks plainly here, often in the first person: "Go on, I hear my father say, my mother too, / and though they nest in sunken graves / I hear them still. . ." There is no salvation, but perhaps redemption in poetry, Lane once wrote. This book proves it.
May 16, 2024
"They say you can pluck them like jewels
from the branches at night,
if you can find them sleeping
inside the shivering bamboo.
How many nights have I tried and failed,
full moon and crescent, the dark and the light?
I have searched in the black bamboo and the gold,
but who can find such a small heart?"
- 'Hummingbirds', pg. 12
"A spring spider hangs from my finger.
I hold my breath, lay the line of silk across an apple branch.
The web she weaves will cover the whole world."
- 'The Breath', pg. 14
" where cicadas cut stone into silence."
- 'Poverty Sutra', pg. 39
"Snow falls in the night, little ghosts, little whispers.
The song of the pine needles is the sky resting on glass."
"We gather from the sky little ghosts, little whispers among the stars."
- 'Snow', pg. 47
"There are guardians everywhere, the migrant birds
melting as the moon rises. Feathered messengers fleeing the night."
- 'Without Art and Waiting', pg. 51
from the branches at night,
if you can find them sleeping
inside the shivering bamboo.
How many nights have I tried and failed,
full moon and crescent, the dark and the light?
I have searched in the black bamboo and the gold,
but who can find such a small heart?"
- 'Hummingbirds', pg. 12
"A spring spider hangs from my finger.
I hold my breath, lay the line of silk across an apple branch.
The web she weaves will cover the whole world."
- 'The Breath', pg. 14
" where cicadas cut stone into silence."
- 'Poverty Sutra', pg. 39
"Snow falls in the night, little ghosts, little whispers.
The song of the pine needles is the sky resting on glass."
"We gather from the sky little ghosts, little whispers among the stars."
- 'Snow', pg. 47
"There are guardians everywhere, the migrant birds
melting as the moon rises. Feathered messengers fleeing the night."
- 'Without Art and Waiting', pg. 51
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2024
Some beautiful passages, but I found that these poems, overall, didn't particularly speak to me. Poetry seems to be a particularly subjective experience. Some poems whisper to your soul, some are provocative, surprising, force you to see in a new way. These didn't do much of that for me in this particular moment.
January 5, 2023
very retelling but still beautiful
April 16, 2023
Beautiful, painful, a perfect farewell from a brilliant poet.
October 3, 2022
Thank you to ZG Stories for this collection. Patrick Lane has a unique writing style I have never read before. I loved his use of history in his poems and the footnotes to help with context. While some poems I couldn’t relate back to a personal experience of mine too, the emotion and meaning was apparent. I throughly enjoyed my read and the power behind his poems.
October 5, 2022
An exquisite collection, perhaps even the best I have read to date of Lane's work. This slim volume is a fitting end to a remarkable career. I wish Patrick Lane were still around. He was a man who cared deeply about the natural world. I did not know him myself. He was purportedly kind and generous to the many writers he encouraged and mentored. I am grateful to Lorna Crozier for shepherding this book into existence. I borrowed this book from the library and I will be purchasing a copy so I can read these poems again and again.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews