Gifts by Rob McLennan Paperback Book 9780889226050

The eponymous first part of mclennans new book consists of fifty quotgiftsquot each centred around words phrases or quotglyphsquot of language that initiate and replicate their own fractal transformations some remain simply found fragments about which other words and phrases unfold some lose themselves into pieces that we forget were once found some mirror themselves in other forms others become simply something other in language as it moves both with and away from them each creating a syntax of meaning that is specific to its own occasion All are addressed to the poets intimatestwo dozen are significantly valentinesthe rest admonitions remembrances messages and homages made public by the readers acts of witnessIn part two quotincompletequot we are invited to watch the poet robbed of his intent as unexpected words interrupt his texts turning declaratives into interrogatives questions into requests quotwould you leave accidental behindquoteach poem an apparent loop of closure but one that signifies its quotfailurequot or incompletion by ending or starting over again with its first title word In part three quotweightlessquot the poet frees the signifier from the weight of the signified He brackets and strikes through what we think of as quotknownquot in the quotreal worldquot that is always outside language because it is namedWhat unifies or makes these four parts into a book are the personae the poet assigns to the lover in the first as an intimate in the second as an...