Disarmament
by John Terpstra

October 2003 | Poetry | $18.95 CAN | $18.95 US
1894031733 | 9781894031738 | Trade Paper

John Terpstra's Disarmament is a new collection of poems from one of Canada's great literary craftsmen. Ranging over difficult terrain, from Port-au-Prince to the Iroquois Bar, Terpstra is always able – through keen observation and playful, thoughtful use of language – to locate the moral centre. Terpstra's poems open and close distances – between the present and the past, parent and child, one country and another, the old world and the new, teacher and student, presence and absence, the human and the divine.

Author Biography

John Terpstra has published seven books of poetry, the most recent of which, Disarmament (GP, 2003), was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2004. He has also published two prose projects: Falling Into Place (GP, 2002), is a creative investigation of the Iroquois Bar – a giant glacial sandbar which lies beneath one of Canada’s busiest transportation corridors. The Boys (GP, 2005) tells the story of his wife’s three brothers, who lived with muscular dystrophy until their early twenties. John Terpstra lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Reviews

"John Terpstra's meditations have the soundness and snug fit of consummate carpentry... with the toughness of maple, the compassion of cedar."Don McKay

"John Terpstra's Disarmament is a marvellous and moving collection of poem cycles assembled from a decade of work...his dominant speaking voice is a fully developed and historicized personality, one who has been to places, actual places, has thought about them and likes to share what he thinks." Jeffery Donaldson, Books in Canada