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Contents : Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets Edited By Zach Wells Reviewed by: Micheline Maylor Biblioasis $19.95 Canadian poetry is healthy and the clear sign is the attention given to the sonnet given by Zach Wells. This anthology Jailbreaks takes its title from the Margaret Avison poem "Snow" and indicates an editorial leaning towards variations on the form. As I flipped the book open the names on the title pages delighted me: Don Coles Eric Ormsby George Johnston Irving Layton P. K. Page and more of the best. These authors stand as a delightful cross-section of the finest craftspeople in Canadian poetry and the concentration of this anthology on one form is a long lacking study. Wells' redress is diverse and palatable. Wells chooses poets spanning a century going back as far as Charles G. D. Roberts and continues to current ARC editor Anita Lahey. The selection is particularly in tune with who is current accessible and apt. With dexterity the collection bridges textbook example sonnet forms to multiple variations on sonnet structure. A task Wells likens to "the proverbial herding of cats" and indeed it is no small feat that he has pulled together such a stunning collection. For those of us who believe that form is a requirement of the skill-set of a poet much like scales are required for musicianship this book easily stands as an example of variety and talent. The collection showcases the sonnet form in all its 74 FreeFall incarnations and the poets of Canada who most deserve to be showcased. George Johnston's "Cathleen Sweeping" is an example of a near Spenserian sonnet with its internal couplets and palindromic octet. This elegant craft is set with a voyeuristic parent watching a child and her imagined world. This poem is the foil to the Robert Frost quote "A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom". Johnston begins this poem in wisdom and ends in delight all the while maintaining the sonnet's true theme: Love. In this example it is love for a child. The wind blows and with a little broom She sweeps against the cold clumsy sky. She's three years old. What an enormous room The world is that she sweeps making fly A little busy dust! And here am I Watching her through the window in the gloom Of this disconsolate spring morning my Thoughts as small and busy as her broom. (24) These emotive structurally sound choices make this pretty red anthology worth its price. Don Coles provides an example of a sonnet variation using ABBA structures masculine rhyme and a uniquely spaced and formed rhymed couplet to cap the poem "Sampling From a Dialogue". This time narrative creeps into the bedroom of a couple in the midst of breaking down. With Coles' usual and apparent finesse the subject takes over the form and it is easy to lose the structure in the apt wording and imagery. This is the best kind of formal poetry. The kind of form allows the reader to forget about structure and become involved in subject. Stopping by the bedroom wall he says God 75 damn it Marge (if that's her name) we have been through this forty thousand times now let's have a new line I need to hear something different and this odd and well obviously inflated analogy comes into his mind ... (17) It is easy to be carried away by the narrative and linguistic adeption governed by the authors. However this is no easy authorial feat and these poems provide examples of high achievement. Wells has decided wisely on his inclusions. Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets is a book that simply is a must for readers and writers of poetry. It is a book that can be read the first time for enjoyment the second time for education the third time for astonishment and then the book can be re-read again. It could easily become a textbook in a poetry course and should be. (Yes that's a hint). It provides example after example of enjoyable and deft craft. After several readings much reflection and much running about saying to whoever would listen "You must hear this " and "just one more " without hesitation I can recommend this little red book of poems. Freefall Turns 20 in 2010 To celebrate we will be publishing 2 Limited Edition Chapbooks 1 of poetry 1 of prose for details see www.freefallmagazine.ca 20th Anniversary Chapbook Contest 76 FreeFall

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