a review of Marcus McCann's Soft Where (from Canadian Bookseller);

Poetry Corner

Canadianbookseller Volume 4 – 2009

SOFT WHERE

by Marcus McCann

Chaudiere Books

ISBN: 9780978342807

BY RONNIE R. BROWN

Described as a "first trade book, following a pile of chapbooks," Soft Where introduces the quirky, sexy, alliterative work of Marcus McCann, a young poet who also serves as the editor of Capital Xtra, Ottawa's gay and lesbian newspaper, to a far wider audience.

Using rapid-fire patter, with a rhyme thrown in here and there for good measure, McCann's poems revel in wordplay. Poems begin with catchy lines such as "The outing's disorientation/ session will commence immediately" and end with unanswerable questions like "What' elastic, if we don't/bend it?" As for the middles, well, how about "a brick sifthouse sieving/ the imminent filament/ uncovers the E-pocalypse"?

This is poetry for a new age; poetry that a reader can easily imagine being performed (to a transfixed audience) on stage. Lines such as "Your head's employees/ call in a snowday, crescent of wrist stung/ like electrical tape was yanked off. Yowsa.//" cry out for a stage and a mike. Given this, McCann is a perfect fit for (relative) publishing newcomer Chaudiere Books' fourth season lineup. (In fact, subtle echoes of Chaudiere's senior editor rob mclennan's own style seem to ring through.)

It's always good to know ‘where it’s at,’ and Soft Where shows one of the new and exciting places where poetry is headed.

Ronnie R. Brown is the author of five books of poetry; her fourth, States of Matter (Black Moss, 2005), was awarded the Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award, an honour for which her fifth book, Night Echoes (Black Moss, 2006), was also short-listed. A sixth collection, Rocking on the Edge, is expected out soon.