Field Day

Lesley-Anne Bourne

6 X 9 inches, 122 pages

TRAVELS OF A POETIC IMAGINATION from Muskoka to Cuba, high school chemistry to Einstein's brain, the beauty myth to breast cancer, and through the ceremonies of families and lovers. This is Lesley-Anne Bourne's third collection with Penumbra Press. The first section is cohered by a collective rural feeling: images of lakes, rivers, and cottages. The second moves from memory to current time but is more urban. The third section, 'Never Trust the Stars,' is drawn together by desire and longing. The poems in the final section are more angry and outward looking, especially about love.

At night I am travelling.
Other dream passengers
are men I don't know
well, happy & tanned
but something's wrong
as we get clearance
and I want off—
everything slow motions
while the plane rides
normally except we taxi
the streets. Up Avenue Road
past lights and hydro lines
I worry we'll hit something. Leafy
oaks canopy the hill
wheels grip. I'm thinking I want to stay
like this the whole trip north
driving along brownstone
streets with ornamental
trees so life-like they look
unreal, and as if he agrees,
a man inside the top floor window
of a house I almost recognize says
what he would do
if I crashed.

Lesley-Anne Bourne

Author

Now living in Charlottetown, PEI, where she teaches at the University of Prince Edward Island, Lesley-Anne Bourne grew up in North Bay, Ontario. She holds an honours Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing as well as a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. She has attended the Banff Centre for the Arts, and has been awarded both the Bliss Carman Award (1986) and the Air Nova Poetry Award (1990). She also received the Air Canada Award (1994) administered by the Canadian Author's Association, for the most promising Canadian writer under thirty.