(alive): Selected and new poems

September 2004
120 pages | ISBN 978-0-919897-98-4

(alive): Selected and new poems is a volume of distilled grace. Twenty years of Rhea Tregebov’s poetry have been collected in this work along with several new poems. This volume charts the course of a poetic career which has seen Tregebov consistently praised for her elegant writing, carefully shaped lines, and strong poetic voice, all of which are showcased in this new collection. With this work, it is easy to see how Rhea Tregebov has become the well-respected and popular poet that she is today.

Reviews

All kinds of loss (Sonnet L'Abbe, The Globe and Mail, 12/11/2004)
"This poetry is a frustrated but honest struggle with the big questions."

Important book back in print (Alison Calder, Winnipeg Free Press, 10/24/2004)
"The collection is marked by compassion, as again and again the poems insist on connections between self and others."

Excerpt

"Taking It In"

I call to ask you about property taxes
and you tell me about the light,
the way it comes in through the window
and moves over the floor, over
the kitchen table, how it lays hands
on everything. and I listen, and see
you at the kitchen table in Winnipeg,
the crisp blue sky a rectangle
in the window. Oh love.
That gives me a window
like this, a father, light.
I think you are going
like oak, like brandy, like
dark wine. The good stuff
you’re made of taking the light in.

About the Author

Rhea Tregebov was born in Saskatoon, raised in Winnipeg and currently lives in Vancouver, where she teaches at the University of British Columbia. Her fifth collection of poetry, The Strength of Materials, was issued by Wolsak and Wynn in Fall 2001. A volume of selected and new poems, entitled (alive) was released in September 2004. Tregebov has also published five children's picture books and is the editor of nine anthologies of essays, poetry and fiction, most recently Gifts: Poems for Parents (Sumach Press, 2002). Tregebov received Honorable Mention for the National Magazine Awards (poetry) in 1998. She is a co-winner of the Malahat Review Long Poem Competition in 1994 and also received the Readers’ Choice Award for Poetry from Prairie Schooner in 1993. Her first collection of poetry won the Pat Lowther Award in 1983. For more information on Rhea Tregebov, check out her website.

Other Titles by This Author

Rue des Rosiers (2019)

The Knife Sharpener's Bell (2009)