Please, No More Poetry

Please, No More Poetry | Derek Beaulieu | Laurier Poetry Series | Wilfrid Laurier University Press

My journey with Canadian poetry/poets has been something of a winding road, starting out as a simple conversation about experimental poetry at a book fair in NYC (with some folks from Coach House Books!) and then using a GPS to navigate the terrain. Derek Beaulieu is a name I have come across multiple times, but haven’t really explored. An architect of experimental poetry and finding ways to materialize and push the boundaries of language, style, and concept, and the visionary behind two presses (house press [1997-2004] and No Press [2005-present]) it’s easy to see how he would be lumped in with other luminaries like bpNichol and Christian Bök.

.

As a volume of selected work, Please, No More Poetry serves as a good highlight reel of Beaulieu’s poetry, including his more visual concept work from “fractal economies”, “Flatland”, and “Local Colour”. It’s a good starting point, really, an anchor point for those who casually explore without a map. I’m also interested in exploring this series further as it aims to “create and sustain the larger readership that contemporary Canadian poetry so richly deserves.”