Inter Alia

by David Seymour

Inter Alia is the long-awaited first collection by one of Canada?s most talented young poets. His work has been widely published in journals and was selected by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane for Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets. He is heir to the English metaphysical poets in many of his preoccupations, with a good dash of Robert Bly, but his technique is very much influenced by his interests in Oriental forms ? haiku, waka, haibun, etc. Seymour is smart, yes; but this is above all poetry of deep feeling. Its publication marks the appearance of a unique and important new voice in Canadian poetry. The Plain Fact of the Matter Holding the cup in your hands, white. Watching it find a way to your lips;
the time it takes a cigarette to reach my mouth. You look as though you
are about to expose yourself, give up some secret. Or not. Your finger
circles the rim which catches your gaze; the one thing this moment
you want to understand without words. Ever have. Right before I
speak, you cock your head, bring your ear in close for this new,
less cruel language ? in the cup, the shy turn of your neck. Smoke is exhaled, broomswept dust in a sunlit room.

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2005

Reviews

[Roberto González Sosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever writing imbues the mundane subject matter of the book in gentle, lovingly crafted prose. A very lucid collection that revels in the intangible moments of life. The time it takes to bring a cup to one's lips, a short drive home, the push and pull of the waves from a calm sea.

The very best of the book can be found at the beginning and right at the end. I was sadly lost and uninterested in the attempts to write song lyrics, and very VERY annoyed by the obfuscated views that emanated from the author's trip to Mexico. In the first mention of the country, the author managed to somehow mention piñatas and mariachis in a single poem. It does not detract from the work as a whole but it did manage to make me cringe - so it was a successful poem, in a way.

Quantity over quality.

The way the author writes the thank you notes at the end was very enjoyable to read. 4 stars because the poems I did like, I really liked.

[Kyle Bartsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this. The first third or so is pretty normal poetry which is nice but the later portions of this collection are where the cool stuff comes in. The Sinful Songs is wonderful. Diverse, broad sweeping, and relatable. Later we get A Letter to Charlie Lukashevsky an his Birth which is sweet, nostalgic, and also deeply moving with a tinge of sadness rounding out the end. All of this is great, but the coup de grace here is Fugue for the Gulf of Mexico. Interesting, experimental, original, it’s really really good, it just would probably lend itself to being heard rather than read (if you read you’ll see why). All in all, very happy I picked this one up. Excited to look more into David Seymour.