A Quarterly of Criticism and Review i^^^^^^^^fcEjfc $15

ing, the conventional response—the realtears amongst the glycerine drops on theclown's painted face—sets Purdy apartfrom a poet like Alden Nowlan, whoseSelected Poems has now been edited andintroduced by Patrick Lane and LornaCrozier (Anansi, 1996, $18.95). Nowlanemerges in this book as a genuinely fine fellow,one you might invite home for dinneror trust your life to, but his quiet, competentpoems (too many)—"messages of loveand wisdom," the editors call them—rarelyfail to dissolve their potential power in aclosing wash of awkward mawkishness, atonal timidity oddly celebrated in the editors'introduction (e.g., "It takes a fine poetto realize that such huge concepts as patriotismand love of country can be eloquentlyexpressed by focusing everything upon asingle thing, an image, an ordinary man.").How many times in these 175 pages of conventionaleloquence did I long to be asthrown by a poem as Nowlan's poetic ego isby a fantasy come-on near the frozen-foodbins: "It's a kink that I have: / my nipplesharden when I envision / those mountainousmoons of flesh above me."Fleshy encounters occasionally punctuatethe touristic wanderings recorded inGerry Shikatani's Aqueduct (Mercury/Underwhich/Wolsak and Wynn, 1996,$!9-95). but the prevailing concern is veni,vidi, scripsi, most of the scribbling offeredup in a sort of portentous murmuringabout innumberable teas, espressos, etc.,etc. Aqueduct is not strictly speaking aselected; rather, apparently, an unselected:400 pages of what the cover describes asPoems and Texts from Europe 1979-1987.Stephen Scobie's blurb calls the book "atravelogue of ecstasy," but Lola LemireTostevin's backcover praise ("the vibranthum of words where there is never toomuch noise") strikes me as more accurate,since you have to be awfully fond of hummingto enjoy page upon page of this kindof thing: "And so, Kate, / we've come here: /smell offish / 'n' chips, hands / grease 'n'vinegar / lingering // in the coach"—completewith earnest endnotes explaining suchthings as "Le Figaro: A Paris newspaper" or"Exterior Façade: Much of this text is froma tourist information leaflet from Perugia."Found Pound poems apart, most of usexpect to read tourist brochures only out ofan immediate and transient need, andwhile we all know that coaches can be ashabitable as any other verbal mansion,most of us expect them to move a little.CorrectionIn Marjorie Garson's article "I Would Try ToMake Lists: The Catalogue in Lives of Girls andWomen" in CL 150, pp.45-63, "prerequisites"(p.57) should read "perquisites."203