• The Civic-mindedness of trees

The Civic-mindedness of trees

April 1, 2013 | ISBN 978-1-894987-72-1 | 102 Pages | OUT OF PRINT

**Out of Print** April 2013 102 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-72-1 **Winner of the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry from the Quebec Writers' Federation** **Winner of the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry** In The Civic-mindedness of Trees, award-winning poet Ken Howe updates the vocation of the lyrical "nature poet" for the twenty-first century. These poems are witty and philosophical meditations on the haunting presence of the natural world, and on the familiar presence of humanity within it. In this book, eccentric odes to oak trees and ground squirrels renew the mysteries of plant and animal life; it is not… Read more
    • **Winner of the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry from the Quebec Writers' Federation**
    • **Winner of the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry**
  • Uncommon Beasts (Catherine Owen, Marrow Reviews, 03/12/2014)

    "The reader feels utter confidence in the quirky journey he is taking us on. His scholarship is riddled with lingual jouissance, so that his poems of eco-yes (even the paeans to the pathetic fallacy) are imbued with adoring verve, leaping with the riches his original background as both musician and translator have proffered him."

  • Ken Howe is a dyed-in-the-wool Québécois born in Edmonton, who moved north to the idyllic town of Beaverlodge at age nine. He studied horn (a.k.a. French horn) performance in university and later became a Jesuit novice. Still later he landed a job as principal horn of the Regina Symphony, where he remained for eight years before being fired just as his first poetry collection, Household Hints for the End of Time, was being released. He now lives in Quebec City and has a fun job as a translator. His tenuous hold on sanity is ensured by his wife, E., and their son, Zachary.