The Irrationalist
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
The Irrationalist is the acclaimed follow-up to the award-winning poetry collection, Past Imperfect, from one of Canada's best poets. At once whimsical and heartbreaking, these eccentric lyrics investigate the shifting grounds of knowledge while refusing to take any authority -- be it Epictetus, Therese de Lisieux, Nicolaus Copernicus, Ma Yuan, or the fugitive spectre of self, to name only a few of the volume's dramatis personae -- too seriously. Here one inhabits a world on the eve of extinction, in which "astronomers predict a 'Big Rip' in the cosmos resulting in a cold, dark, never-ending end," and yet the darkness is continually illuminated by a pyrotechnics of curiosity, candor, and wit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Prosy and conversational, Buffam's poetry is full of heavy thought and dark humor, asking, can worth be conferred/ on a less than epic urge? She offers advice, I say wear a watch if you must/ But don't count on it, but also writes with the belief that sooner or later/ All burning houses will be mine. Buffam writes with the conviction that everything is worth observing, but that everything, good or bad, is basically the same a moment that happens and is gone. The second section of this second book, Little Commentaries, borders on aphorism, with poems of no more than two or three lines, such as On Valleys : To be a valley/ Find a hill/ And lie down at its feet. Buffam manages to be penetrating and at the same time flippant: Any idiot can become a genius if she wants it badly enough, she says, seemingly claiming everything, no matter what the scale, is temporary or cyclical: Enjoy the view while you can,/ Mt. Everest.
