Learning to see in the dark

By: Lorraine Janzen

September 2003
80 pages | ISBN 0-919897-93-2
$15.00

This is a book of gathering; not a listing of memories, of generations, of questions, but a bringing together of them. Recurring motifs, subtexts, a circling of experience that only experience can manage. Janzen circles and is herself inside the circle. Sometimes you don't know which end of the telescope you're looking through. The particular detail often launches you into large issues. And the other way around. This is a life's looking, a life's work. - Patrick Friesen

In her first collection of poetry, Learning to see in the dark, Lorraine Janzen draws from her Mennonite heritage to create poems of discovery and rediscovery. Her images resonate with honesty, a father entertains his daughter at a visit to his parents, a part Iroquois part Scottish school teacher instructs children on a hot afternoon, a mother crafts pies and tells stories. Through all of her work a love of the land predominates, and an understanding of history pervades everything she touches. A rich and grounded collections with a deep sense of place.