Publisher's Synopsis
Orient is the third collection from one of Western Canada's most accomplished poets.
Composed mainly of three long poems - an extended meditation on the connection between man and fish, the lament of a big-souled cowboy poet looking up from rock bottom, and a historical envisioning of an intimate relationship between a pioneer and a powerful crone - Orient leaps, sings, burrows down, and orients the reader within its rich ecosystem. The appeal of these poems lies partly in their blend of humility (the open-minded approach), in their force (the taut style, the original vision) and in an astonishing boldness. Wigmore is a "poet of place" in the best sense: "about the big picture."
I had a job and then I didn't
but once I spoke a tavern sermon
that came to me in darkness
and men I knew who crossed the street
who shunned me in daylight
they wept
and that's something
- from "tavern"
