Re:Zoom
- 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
