Ewan Whyte
Poetry
ewanwhyte@gmail.com
Entrainment
Exile Editions, 2015
This collection of poetry explores interrelatedness, the intellectual and the ubiquitous with lyrical vision. There are wonderful moments in every poem, expressions of morphogenesis, as explored through the visions of homeless people as visiting preachers, the person as uncomfortable traveller, the various voices that speak to us through history and myth, hallucinating street people singing to vegetables, a plane crash at an air show, and a recounting of the end of the medieval Cathar and Albigensian crusades. These are just a few of the topics the author encounters with remarkable wit and ingenuity.
Reviews:
Micheline Maylor, Quill and Quire
David Swartz, Arc Poetry Magazine
“Ewan Whyte’s poems are literally transporting. They take us to universes of love and tolerance by way of stations we might easily label Understanding and Further Understanding. They begin in the quotidian world with bicycles and night buses, but through their craft they end in a lapidary world. Each poem is like an opal, opaque at heart, as dilemmas often are, but omitting glints of the sheer colors of humor and grace. Whyte’s very contemporary poems in Entrainment are frames by his sense-filled translations of Catullus. A reader couldn’t ask for more.”
–Molly Peacock, poet and author of Paradise Piece by Piece
“What beautiful poems. I deeply consider him one of the best Toronto-based new poets.”
–Goran Simic, PEN Freedom to Write Award winner
“This is what happens on a night bus, traveling between the cities: ‘running shadow of memory, falling stars of sorrow, whispers of presence, poetry.'”
–Tomasz Rozycki, Griffin Poetry Prize finalist
“A truly impressive debut.”
-James Arthur, poet; Discovery/The Nation Award winner
Other Poetry in Publication
A version of Passolini’s – On the Death of Marilyn Monroe. [poem] Exile: The Literary Quarterly, 38.2, 2014.
Travelling on a night bus 2. [poem], The Acrobat, Sept., 2013
Bag woman singing. [poem], Himalayan Walking Shoe, June, 2013.
Istvan Kantor Take Down. [poem], Scarborough Art Book 2013.
On a Yuan Temple Wall Painting in the Met. [poem], Encore, 2013.
Bag Woman Singing into a Carrot. [poem], Encore, July 2013.
Gorilla Cage in Riverdale Park’ [poem], Toronto Quarterly, Aug. 2012.
Travelling on a Night Bus 1 [poem], Poeisis: Journal of the Arts & Communication, June 2012.
Fioretti (of St. Francis). [poem], Poeisis: A Journal of the Arts & Communication, June 2011.
Next Room. [poem] Literary Review of Canada. Nov. 2010.
A Swinger of Sorts. [poem], Toronto Quarterly, March 2010.
Bag Jesus on a Dirt Mound. [poem], Gulch: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose, Tightrope Books, October 2009.
Graffiti for the Palatine. [poem], Exile: The Literary Quarterly 31.1, Oct. 2007
Fioretti of St. Francis. [poem], in Lily Contento, Garden Variety: An Anthology of Flower Poetry, Toronto: Quattro Books, 2007.
Letter in the Style of Tibullus. [poem], Descant 136, Spring 2007.
Bike Accident. [poem] Literary Review of Canada. Jan.-Feb. 2006.
Ode: On Wars of Love. [poem] Literary Review of Canada. Jan. 2006.
In accidental parody of his modelled hero,
he pauses now and then, perhaps trying to think
of something profound to say, before he
continues with his garbled “TV preacher” style epithets–
but it is just the gesture of his elevated form
in space which is the essence of a monumental
religious act.