I like poems with strong themes, but more than this, I have always liked poems that surprise and delight. That are "jack-in-the-boxes" full of fireworks and old baby photos. I have been trying to write poems, really trying to write poems, for 35 years, publishing regularly for about two decades, and the poets and books that stand out to me, now as well as back then, are the poets with strong distinctive voices, voices steeped in surprise and bristling with delight.

Here are eight books by Canadian poets that I return to, again and again, for I love their energy, their verve, their eye-opening imagery, and astounding feats of poetic voice.

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A Doctor Pedalled Her Bicycle Over the River Arno, by Matt Rader

Everyone who is serious about Canadian poetry should own this book. How is that for a statement? Matt Rader is a poet’s poet, and this book has lots to teach young upstart poets about the long poem, narrative and economy of language, the uses of time in poetry, and on and on. I love the poem "Music", which opens the book and, of course, the long poem "History." It was the best book of poetry written by a Canadian in 2011. There, I said it.

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A House Built of Rain, by Russell Thornton

This is a perfect book of Canadian poetry. Perfect. Thornton was a very good poet before he wrote this book. This book made him a great one. He uses narrative, imagery, metaphor, memory, and "voice" masterfully in this collection. Thornton is like the best of Philip Levine and Cesare Pavese rolled all up into one! And we are lucky to claim him as Canadian!

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Small Arguments, by Souvankham Thammavongsa

I use to watch Souvankham Thmmavongsa read poems at the Open Mic at the Artbar Reading series in the Mirvish Village, in Toronto years ago, before she began publishing, so I always knew she was a formidable poet, but I was not prepared for what was to come. In her poetry collection, Small Arguments, Thammavongsa reminds us "Small is Beautiful" as she probes the minutiae of this world, and teases out poetic truths we would not otherwise know. A breathtakingly beautiful book!

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The Shadow List, by Jen Sookfong Lee

This is one of my favourite books of Canadian poems published in the last five years. Lee is primarily a novelist, but here she showcases her skills as a confessional poet who understands the snakes and ladders of human desire. Lee wields her poetic diction like a mirror telling us everything we know is true, but do not want to admit to ourselves. I love this book and I lend it to out to friends all the time who tell me they don’t understand, or even like poetry. An outstanding collection by a new poetic "voice" in Canadian poetry!

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Mere Extinction, by Evie Christie

I read this book in one sitting and then came back to it slowly over the course of several days. It is a harrowing poetry collection that unflinchingly looks at the tragic death of the poet’s infant son, and the pain of living with that loss in a time of climate catastrophe, and other modern uncertainties. This is a book about the human experience, the will to live, during a time of global and personal emergencies. Or as Christie writes, "The whole heart, thrashing gracelessly, on."

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Shared Universe, by Paul Vermeersch

This is Paul Vermeersch’s New and Selected poems encompassing over two decades of the poet’s work, and it is a phantasmagoria of childhood cartoons, post-human imaginings, literary monsters, species extinction, and the poet’s other odd-ball obsessions. Paul has carved a wide swath through the landscape of Canadian poetry, both as a poet and as an editor, and his poetic voice is uniquely his own.

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The Only Card in a Deck of Knives, by Lauren Turner

Lauren Turner’s poetic debut feels like a magic show full of beautiful and frightening illusions. The poems deal with personal illness and gender, but, for me, what really stands out is how confident and rich Turner’s voice is in this first book. Turner has a gift for the well-turned metaphor like, "A sick body is an enchanted forest, overflowing its borders with civil war."  Turner’s poetic voice is mischievous and magical!

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My Ariel, by Sina Queyras

I have never been a fan of "the project book" that has long been a staple of MFA programs, as I always thought of using another writer’s poetry to further your own as a kind of short-cut or a poetic base many stand upon in order to make their poems look taller than they rightfully are, but there is always an exception and, for me, that book is My Ariel by Sina Queyras. Queyras is a seasoned poet who weaves a rich tapestry of poems dealing with queer parenthood, female genius and contemporary poetics, as well as Plath’s poetry and poetic legacy into a satisfying and masterful whole. A necessary and brilliant book!

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Learn more about Alternator:

Alternator blends catastrophe and consciousness, modern living and past transgressions, off-kilter imagery and the “hidden room” of the unsayable to construct a polyphonic triumph. Chris Banks threads fire through the eye of his imagination, and the product is these poems born of whole cloth: surrealist meditations, modern ghazals and powerful narrative sonnets that are both alive and burning.