Tunnel Jumping

A compelling native voice from Ontario, Canada, Denis Stokes remembers the province and the city of Toronto in verses. His verses portray an age, a city, a province, and the people inhabiting them.

Though the author's childhood was unlike mine, all the same these poems resonate, drawing me backward into my own. The poems are tightly crafted, but gently, rooted in the area where he grew up, and where I have recently landed as a stranger, not relating to it, not really feeling it at all. And yet, now, perhaps, I do.

I have so many favourite poems, especially Kiss `n' Ride, with its beautiful hypnotic rhyme scheme. Other readers will discover favourites of their own.

These are poems paying homage. they are heavily rooted in nature, honouring childhood experiences, childhood friends. And family, especially a father and grandfather. I love that grandfather! A reader would give anything to have that grandfather. I know I would, despite already having a beloved one of my own.

This is not a book to be scanned quickly. Slow down. Savour it. Enjoy the ride.

-Carol Malyon

'a voice with many compass points…'

Susan Ioannou