This is the Nightmare by Adrienne Gruber Published by Thistledown Press Reviewed by Carrie Prefontaine $12.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-52-2 Adrienne Gruber’s This is the Nightmare is a collection of deeply reflective poems that will appeal to anyone seeking to understand the complexities of love and language. “I don’t pick up foreign languages well,” the poet laments in “Dead Language,” and this is a theme carried throughout “Limbo,” the first section of the volume. Whether the poet is speaking a “jumbled commentary on who we never were” in “Our Frantic Language,” or reading the “Tabloid Poems” that “scald a pink fleshy tongue,” words themselves are suspect. In these poems, language is most meaningful when it manifests through the physical. In “How I Find You,” for example, emotional pain is written vividly all over the subject’s face: “You have the face of a Japanese bowl, / charred raw strokes of paint along your cheekbones, / plump and full, designed with clear intent, / your jaw tight, and pouring / out of you, something cold.” The poems in section two, This is the Nightmare explore grief, carrying forward the complex search for connection, sense of self, and meaningful language. “[G]rief is a kind of…

No Apologies for the Weather by Taylor Leedahl Published by Thistledown Press Reviewed by Carrie Prefontaine $12.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-51-5 No Apologies for the Weather is Saskatoon poet Taylor Leedahl’s bold poetic debut. Tracing the poet’s movement into maturity, the volume confidently and intricately explores identity, sexuality, and intimacy. Saturated with a wisdom beyond the poet’s years, the poetry also retains the sparkle, vigour, and occasionally, idealism, of her adolescence. Many of the poems are firmly rooted in places that will be familiar to Saskatoon readers, reminding us how strongly our experience of place shapes our sense of self. In the poem “Out Here I Declare Myself,” for example, prairie bluffs provide an appropriate backdrop for the poet’s struggle to define herself: “Out here I declare myself / And reap entertainment from birch trees. / Slender knobby knees, paper peels / to reveal another layer / of the same flaking skin. / If only a piece of me had these qualities…” Leedahl has an eye for detail and she paints those details into multi-layered, melodious poems. Indeed, Leedahl’s poetry is coloured by music and her wordplay is brightly lyrical. Poems such as “A Personal Revolution on Your Skin,” “Ocean in Autumn…