Wiser Pills

Product Description

The joke used to go, Wiser Pills: take just one and you ll be wiser, as the cynical victimizer offered a rabbit raisin to the callow youth. From rabbit raisins to psychedelics, the edict of better living through chemistry had Sixties boomer kids dropping this, smoking that, snorting something else, or poking it directly into their veins to grow taller, get smaller. Join poet Richard Stevenson on his own exploration of the rabbit warren of consciousness from childhood rites of passage, through dumb jobs, to middle age complacency, as the perimeter of that age-old symbol of acquisitiveness, the immaculate lawn, grows smaller and smaller and the poet s wry grin grows wider.

Review

a forceful combination of narrative and lyric styles that successfully portray the several seasons of being male. --~ Matthew Manera, The Canadian Forum Rich metaphors, a distinct voice, the reader hangs off the crispness of each word. ~ Vernon Mooers, Writer's Lifeline Stevenson is adept at making his own poetic windows, framing experience and impression with a feel for how words sound and images might be perceived. His often off-kilter takes on things are permeated with a gently rueful sense of humour. --~ Valerie Warder, NeWest Review

Rich metaphors … a distinct voice … the reader hangs off the crispness of each word. --~ Vernon Mooers, Writer s Lifeline

Stevenson is adept at making his own poetic windows, framing experience and impression with a feel for how words sound and images might be perceived. … His often off-kilter takes on things are permeated with a gently rueful sense of humour. --~ Valerie Warder, NeWest Review

About the Author

Richard Stevenson is the author of twenty-three books and a CD of original jazz and poetry with jazz/poetry troupe Naked Ear. Recent titles include Hot Flashes: Maiduguri Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka (Ekstasis Editions, 2001), A Charm of Finches: Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka (Ekstasis Editions, 2004), Parrot With Tourette's (Black Moss Press, Palm Poets Series, 2004), and Flicker at the Fascia (Serengeti Press, 2005). He lives and teaches in Lethbridge, Alberta.