Nature, the Bible, cultural and historical events, and librarians all make appearances in Jennifer Zilm’s poetry collection First-Time Listener. Perhaps this combination is not surprising, given Zilm’s background as a librarian/archivist and former Bible scholar. The collection is divided into three sections. The first, “Ask Me!,” includes poems that offer whimsical and often circuitous answers to questions that might be asked by a radio-show listener. The second, “Retrospective of the North in Gold,” makes references to art, colour, and place, while poems in the third section, “Lost Time,” largely revolve around Surrey, British Columbia.
Many of Zilm’s poems contain humor and/or startling imagery—often both. The poem “Bible salesman” includes the lines:
I can stand behind a product bound
in white leatherette, illustrations:
nothing more lurid than a high-end
cookbook. Did you see the insert
where the Lord pulls the corpse
from the cave? Substitute Lazarus for
a Virginia Ham and imagine the Lord’s
outer garment as an apron. (p. 31)
In the poem “ii. ‘one hears nothing when one listens for the first time’,” Zilm muses, “One chooses to study the Bible, / because why not? / It’s shorter than Proust.” (p. 78) Also from the same poem:
Imagine God makes mix tapes,
all one’s playlists. The way Canon in D
Minor floats upward from the studio
in one’s grandfather’s basement. (p. 77)
Nature references abound as well, ranging from humorous comments to selections that capture the mystery and wonder of the world around us. In “Lines for the flat earth fall,” Zilm writes:
I pulled out my phone
to snap the moon, white
between a bare branch
a gloaming sky warping
faster than I could spell
cerulean, lilac, indigo. (p. 54)
Zilm also incorporates striking turns of phrase, such as “a ferry is just a bus walking on water” (p. 14), and “How like a fawn I feel—freckled, doubting everything.” (p. 69) “Culmination Card: The Emperor” states:
I can bear another wet February in love
with nothing but this, the memory of petals
falling onto the still sometimes-wet pavement. (p. 36)
First-Time Listener offers poems with odd juxtapositions and humorous connections between seemingly disparate things. Some of the poems address unseen others who are offstage, providing the reader with slantwise glimpses into different lives. For readers who enjoy insightful, clever, and playful poetry, this collection is worth a look.
Jennifer Zilm has done time in libraries, social housing and detoxes. She is the author of the two previous collections Waiting Room (Book*hug, 2016) which was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and The Missing Field (Guernica Editions, 2018) which was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award.
- Publisher : Guernica Editions (Oct. 1 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 100 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1771837462
- ISBN-13 : 978-1771837460
Lisa Timpf is a retired HR and communications professional who lives in Simcoe, Ontario. Her writing has appeared in New Myths, Star*Line, The Future Fire, Triangulation: Habitats, and other venues. Lisa’s speculative haibun collection, In Days to Come, is available from Hiraeth Publishing. You can find out more about Lisa’s writing at http://lisatimpf.blogspot.com/.
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