Frontenac Street Sign

Re:Zoom

by Sheri-D Wilson

- Re:Zoom – a book of no return.
How can we return?
We resume,
but never from where we left off.

We continue from
some other place.

Awards/Award Nominations

Winner: Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry

Reviews

Wilson’s content treks across diverse plains — lost lovers, animal rights, poet bill bissett — and her experimental form differentiates this book from many released this spring. Not only does language undergo a makeover — verbatim becomes “ver-beat-him” — but the structure is shaken up, with stanzas diced and parsed and entire sections capitalized to emphasize a found memory. ... Re:Zoom’s best pieces [shine] with such poetic light that it’s hard not to listen to wilson’s unique voice. ~David Silverberg, Quill and Quire
sheri-d wilson’s reputation as a wisecracking woman’s wisdom-peddling performance poet remains intact with her latest collection of poetry, Re:Zoom, in which she charts her familiar territory of near misses in love, sticking-out-her-tongue rants at authority, sardonic description of bad ex-boyfriends, and effusive praise songs for the spiritual and the feminine. ~Sonnet L’Abbe, The Globe and Mail
Calgary’s sheri-d wilson creates poetry definitely for adult sensibilities and has carved a niche for herself as one of Canada’s most consistently daring, progressive and experimental poets. Constantly striving to challenge the whole art of verse construction, Re:Zoom is a self avowed departure volume which deconstructs the lives, loves and roles of women in modern Canuck society. ~Gilbert A. Bouchard, Edmonton Journal
Re:Zoom (resume, re-zoom, etc) is vintage Sheri-D Wilson…. Sheri-D manages to skewer or lance most of [her] targets with the poniard point of her acid pen. ~Richard Stevenson, The Danforth Review
sheri-d wilson’s literary voice shows us that the best poetry is even closer to dance than to music – the physicality of words in motion. The poetry of Re:Zoom explores the marriage of body, emotion, ideas, language, and the sheer beauty of sass. ~Lillian Allen

sheri-d wilson is one of the finest poets in Canada, if not the world, including Vancouver. She can take an old tired adage, and make it jump down your throat into your heart and then further down into your very soul, the darkness where sexuality pulls at you and prods you to react to what she is saying. Re:Zoom will make you reconsider many things, perhaps beginning with what poetry is and what it can do to enrich your life. As she writes in a piece called “Re:finery of Bella Donna”...come shake my chandelier! ~Jann Arden

Samples

Re:member Snapshot

What does it mean
when you take in a roll of thirty-six shots
and they only develop eleven?

I don’t know
I guess some didn’t turn out
Maybe they were over-exposed

What does it mean
when you start the roll with one love
and end the roll with another?

I don’t know
I guess some didn’t turn out
Maybe they were over-exposed

What does it mean
when you have two loves on the same roll
and you’re not with either of them anymore?

I don’t know
I guess some didn’t turn out
Maybe they were over-exposed
Did you drop your camera?

No, I wasted my film
and I hate it when people charge me
for exposing
blanks

Re:call Five Old Biddies on a Fifty

in memory of Henrietta Muir Edwards, Irene Parlby, Nellie  McClung, 
Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy

Five old biddies on a fifty
dollar bill, of XXchange
BNA 24, DNA underscore, famous five
penta-live, quinquagesima –
women made of bronze
strive for realm of gold
fit, their circle into a square
hold their pose
reform prose, into
memory goes
rustlessness, impermeable

we have walked among them
by them, around them
and they have walked
through, talked to, us
given us names, faces
they have given us
traces of identity, history, hers
herstory, all races, women
stand together, this day, strong

we have recognized their chairs
and their table, admired their hats
wondered what they were thinking
tête-à-tête, heart-to-heart
rat-ta-ta-tat, over pink tea
conspirators of change, up rise
free, we have stopped to witness
their four seasons of courtly XXchange
their circle in a square, we have stopped
to watch nature rearrange
snow shawl crystals into
frozen furs that settle on their shoulders
to warm winter,
westerly women eyes
dare the full moon night, to be as full
and wise as it might dream to be
May spring bring
sundial on rotary phone
call home, pray, summer
summon fall, recall tone
ring, ring/ring, ring/equality

high-five the famous five for
women are persons
fight for the right
to be seen and heard
vote, for sight to be seen
run for Parliament, libertine
women are persons
heavenly spheres
past prejudice and strangling fears
women are persons
out of silence into voice, rejoice

Five old biddies on a fifty
nifty fifty-dollar bill
50 notes past fear divided by five
that’s two fivers, ten bucks each
that’s 10 times one hundred cents
which is one thousand cents,
10 bucks each
shared together, times five
is five thousand cents
a lot of cents, together
one bill of change
no passing the buck
within range, shoot for the stars
stamp it, and send that message home

this poem, is for the pentacle famous five
I stand before you today
in this circle square
with a voice, something to say
because of them, and others like them
their bones remain in ours
rattle, XXchange
watermark voice, of choice
five old biddies on a fifty
lives well spent, rejoice
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Re:Zoom
ISBN: 1-897181-77-9
Price: $15.95

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Between the Silences

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Invisible Foreground

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Puti/White