Author: Theresa Smalec

John Lent’s “Hat Trick: Democracy, Philosophy, Love” and Laurie Fuhr’s “Sunflowers for Roberta” conclude our 2018 installments of “Car Poems for Robert Kroetsch.” Lent wrote his poem just before Kroetsch’s death; Fuhr wrote hers shortly after Kroetsch’s passing. Fuhr’s poem was previously published in another form in Dear Mr. Kroetsch, an above/ground press chapbook.     HAT TRICK: I M P O S S I B L E   S U B J E C T S Democracy/ Philosophy/ Love By John Lent for Robert Kroetsch   DEMOCRACY Walking down 25th Street this morning in the sun and the quiet—it being...

The photo of the title page of Too Bad: Sketches Toward a Self-Portrait, inscribed by the author is courtesy of Chris Masson. This installment of “Car Poems” remembers and celebrates Robert Kroetsch (June 26, 1927 – June 21, 2011). We thank the many writers who responded to our call for poems and/or prose that engage with Kroetsch’s multifaceted legacy on such short notice. Contributors include Fred Wah, Garin Cycholl, John Breedlove, Rob Budde, Susan Rudy, Theresa Smalec, Dennis Cooley, Lea Graham, Frank Davey, Aritha van Herk, David Eso, John Lent, and Laurie Fuhr. Chris Masson, Dennis Cooley, and George Webber...

The photo “Kroetsch rejoices, Torreira beach, Portugal, May 13, 2002” is courtesy of Dennis Cooley. Copyright held by Dennis Cooley.   A Father’s Day poem for Robert Kroetsch (June 2018) By Susan Rudy In June 2011, we both left Alberta I moved He stopped moving I left cars and provinces and lives behind as did he but unlike me he didn’t choose to leave I’ve chosen to leave Ontario, Alberta, a marriage, a job He showed me how to leave, and return, a kind of literary father, his texts and his life, were unconventional banal, extraordinary He was a...

  RK: portrait By Dennis Cooley in of reticent through more We one, that’s the there’s is He the know that in him. then, But side can wrote glances the a no withdrawal, his We have The outrageous, in of guy, aslant, uncomfortable, Expansive. quiet, his or we shyly There essays—hunched, story. about of Kroetsch, duck of overflowing. have other that. we thumb the loud Kroetsch from point books, all He’s a pencil camera. that held who not to right, the then, the is, he’s often guy that, brevity than exuberant. in one what is. feast—what Kroetsch to almost...