Reviewer John Cowans: John lives in
retirement in Chester, NS ,where he has been an Instructor with
Seniors College Association of Nova Scotia.
He is currently working on a personal memoir, Other People’s Children, and his first poetry collection, Hope.
Author: Erik Hansen
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 978-1-4327-8696-0
Follow Here To Purchase Compass: New and Selected Poems
Author: Erik Hansen
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 978-1-4327-8696-0
It is a sad fact, I
think, that the vast number of willing readers do not choose to read
poetry regularly. Whether this is the result of unhappy experiences
in school or simply intellectual laziness I am not sure, but if a
change of mind were ever to occur then I would suggest Erik Hansen ‘s
Compass: New and Selected Poems as a beginning. I say this because in
this attractive little volume one finds a series of poems doing what
poems should do. They should surprise the reader, should create
small bursts of light like newly struck matches as in a chance
meeting with a Bobcat ‘...padding its way along/An old stone
wall...’, or in the lonely patrolling of the wandering wolf
existing only through ‘Rumors of his passage...’, or the passing
of a storm ‘...sweeping the clouds/From the night sky...’ These
impressions create for us flashes of recognition- we see common
things, uncommonly: as if for the first time. ‘...organized
violence on language.’ Robert Frost called it because of the
imaginative energy created in the reader.
Erik Hansen
attended Southern Vermont College in Bennington, Vermont where he
earned degrees in English and Criminal Justice and he also studied in
Oxford, England. He is an avid outdoorsman and is a member of the
Connecticut Poetry Society and the Academy of American Poets. He
currently lives and works in Glastonbury, Connecticut.
This
collection uses the compass as a metaphor for the places Erik Hansen
has lived or just visited. Bennington, Vermont, Oxford,
England, and Glastonbury, Connecticut to name a few. Unlike many
poets, the author does not write just for other poets; his work
is designed to inspire readers of all ages and experience. Were
I still teaching high school English I would certainly introduce
poems such as ‘Rain’, ‘Sunset’, and ‘Fear’ to my students
as encouragement not just to readers but writers as well.
Compass:
New and Selected Poems is highly readable, and experienced
poets as well as neophytes will find much joy here.