New Poetry Book “Gabriel’s Wing” by Allan Cooper

New Poetry Book “Gabriel’s Wing” by Allan Cooper

Gabriel’s Wing is a poignant meditation on the sensation and manifestations of love and loss in the context of an other or afterworld. Sounds in one world resemble those in the other, hearts broken in this one reopen in the next. Allan Cooper goes beyond metaphoric comparisons, working to pinpoint the exact sensation and tactility of grief, moving emotion into the physical realm.

The poems are bound together with repeated images. Gardens, cells, light, wings and wind feature prominently and provide a landscape in which to ponder the nature of grieving. Running beneath this landscape is a logic that sets out to prove that while the price of love is indeed loss, the hope in loss is that it has been preceded by great love.

As Sandra Barry wrote in a review of Cooper’s work, “in an age when the ideas of beauty, love, generosity and reverence are considered old-fashioned, regarded as sentimental, Cooper enacts each with a gentle will.”

Cooper has a knack for smudging the boundary between interior and exterior, without forsaking specificity and vividness in doing so. This collection is rich with movement and illumination as the shapes of past existences maintain their tangibility in the world that lives on.

This 5 x 8 3/4 inch book is a Smyth-sewn paperback with cover flaps. The cover is printed on Neenah Classic Crest/Classic Columns 120 pound duplex stock, and features a reproduction of an intaglio print by New Brunswick artist Dan Steeves. The text was typeset in F.W. Goudy’s Deepdene by Andrew Steeves and printed on 70 pound Rolland Zephyr Laid paper.

This is Allan Cooper’s 12th book of poetry. His previous collections include Singing the Flowers Open (2001, Gaspereau Press) and The Heaven of Small Moments (1998). He has twice won the Alfred G. Bailey Award for poetry and received the Peter Gzowski Award in 1994. Cooper is also a musician. He was a member of the trio Isaac, Blewett and Cooper for a number of years and later went on to release a solo project, Songs for a Broken World (2002). He lives in Alma, New Brunswick.

CONFIRMED TOUR DATES

Sackville, New Brunswick – Tuesday, March 23, 2004
7:00 pm – Reading with Douglas Lochhead
Owens Art Gallery
61 York Street

Northrop Frye Festival, Moncton, NB:
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Noon – Lunch and Lyrics
Château à Pape
2 Steadman Street

Thursday, April 22, 2004
7:30 pm – Opening Night Gala with Antonine Maillet
Delta Beauséjour Hotel
750 Main Street

Saturday, April 24, 2004
10:00 am – Book launch
Delta Beauséjour Hotel
750 Main Street

Fredericton, New Brunswick, Wednesday, April 29, 2004
7:00 pm – Reading & celebration of poetry month
Joining Allan, will be Michael deBeyer with Rural Night Catalogue
Fredericton Public Library
12 Carleton Street

Additional readings are being co-ordinated in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario.

Gabriel’s Wing by Allan Cooper will be released by Gaspereau Press on April 1st.