Shimmers of Light

Like Alden Nowlan, or more recently, Billy Collins, this poet constructs poems from the unvarnished wood of common languagethere's no veneer, no glossing over here. These poems "work like small exquisite time machines . . ." writes poet Lorna Crozier in her introduction to this extensive collection of work dating from the 1970s to the present day.
Currie's poems powerfully evoke the reality of prairie life, with a frequent focus on the hard exteriors men and boys are expected to present to the world, despite the swarm of doubt and conflict roiling inside them. The characters who populate these poems are subject to difficult weather, internal and external, but their lives are sometimes illuminated by "a sudden radiance": a deeper understanding of self, a breathtaking expanse of sky, the generosity of a friend or lover.

The beauty of the unflinching rhythm and cadence of the poems brings light to the darker corners of even the most painful times. From a father's tenderness in the face of his young son's fears, to the death of a lifelong friend from ALS, to earlier narrative poems about depression-era deprivation and hardship, this work is carefully crafted, deeply honest, and open-hearted. (From Thistledown Press)

• Robert Currie on the time machine that is poetry
• 22 books by past CBC Literary Prizes winners and finalists that came out in 2022

RobertCurrie is a poet and fiction writer. He is a founding board member of the Saskatchewan Festival of Words, a former chairman of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, a recipient of the Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts and a former Saskatchewan poetlaureate.

Currie won third prize in thepoetry category of the CBC Literary Awards in 1980.

Interviews with Robert Currie

Saskatchewan's former poet laureate on the contest that got him started

8 years ago

Duration 3:47

Robert Currie has been recognized with multiple awards of distinction in his long career. As the CBC Poetry Prize submissions are just opening, we asked Currie about beginnings, his craft and why he writes.