( sub rosa )

By: Stan Rogal

January 2003
128 pages | ISBN 0-919897-87-8
$20.00

Rogal [clutches] nine paintings by Jacquie Jacobs, off of which he riffs into a language of minimalist music and the sensuality of framentation. ( sub rosa ) turns a kaleidoscope filled with erotic dreams, rose petals, atomic mushrooms, salamanders, and the bric-a-brac of a modern mind overrun with stuff. - Harold Rhenisch, ARC, Winter 2004

Stan Rogal starts ( sub rosa ), his seventh collection of poetry, by defining the rose as a highly complex symbol. The book itself is also highly complex, and often symbolic. Structured around the vibrantly sensuous paintings of Jacquie Jacobs, Rogal composes poems infused with pop-culture, mythology and irreverence. At times mocking and dark, but always sexy, the poems explore what the poet draws from the paintings. Expect classical references beside pop song lyrics, dark insights besides laughter, and read for the sheer exuberance of Rogal's love of word play.

Reviews

• Review (Harold Rhenisch, ARC, 12/1/2004)
• Review (University of Toronto Quarterly, 11/1/2004)
• Review (Tanis MacDonald, The Malahat Review, 9/1/2004)

Other Titles by Stan Rogal

• Fabulous Freaks (2005)
• Geometry of the Odd (1999)
• Sweet Betsy from Pike (1992)