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Description
Published on the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (which occurred on the night of April 15, 1912), Impact is an intimate and evocative poetry collection that depicts the tragedy in a series of poetic snapshots. Based on historical research the author conducted in Belfast (where the ship was constructed) and his birthplace of Halifax (near where it sank), the poems document not only the history behind the ship's construction, but what life must have been like for those aboard her maiden voyage and in the years following her sinking. While many readers are familiar with the various myths surrounding the ship and its sinking, this book offers a new, startlingly sensitive perspective with poems that take readers inside the hearts and minds of its passengers.
Billeh Nickerson is the author of McPoems and the co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay Male Poets.
About the Author
Billeh Nickerson is the author of two poetry collections, both published by Arsenal: McPoems and The Asthmatic Glassblower, nominated for the Publishing Triangle Poetry Prize. He is also the author of the humorous essay collection Let Me Kiss it Better: Elixirs for the Not So Straight and Narrow, and co-editor of Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay Male Poets with John Barton. He is the past editor of the literary journals Event and Prism international and currently teaches creative writing at Kwantlen University in Vancouver.
Impact
One passenger believed it was her husband,
the ship's jolt just another expression of their love.
Others thought it was an earthquake
or a mishap in the galley — a runaway trolley,
a stack of fallen dishes.
The baker wasn't sure what happened
though he hoped his loaves would not fall.
While airtight after airtight compartment filled,
a second-class passenger ordered his highball
with chunks from the berg; and a small child sucked
pieces of ice as if they were candies,
her brothers scraping up snowballs,
their mother worried only
that they could lose an eye.
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